Jedi Destiny III: Dark Resolve
by Mikells
Summary: After escaping from the Imperium's invasion of Yavin 4, Zak and friends find themselves adrift, looking for a new home. But when Imperium turncoat Allina becomes mortally ill, Zak finds himself unwilling to stand by and do nothing to save her.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_**IMPERIUM VICTORY DESTROYER:**_** NIGHT SKY**_**; YAYA NTO SPACEPORT, NAVII LYA PRIME**_

**29:05:14 ABY:**

Alitha was in a small degree of surprise when she stepped out onto the bridge of the _Night Sky_.

The Star Destroyer was of an earlier design than the Imperial-class—Victory-class. It was much smaller and possessed less weaponry, but was faster and had stronger ion burst laser cannons than most of the other classes of ship in the fleet.

Due to its smaller bulk, it had been a perfect choice in taking to the planet of Navii Lya Prime in the mid rim regions bordering unexplored space, as its smaller structure allowed for it to be the only service-active destroyer able to land at some planetary space ports.

As she strode evenly, confidently, down the central walk, a grin pinned into place on her pale face, she took the time to look both left and right to assess the damage that had been done to the ship in her absence.

All of the bridge officers were deeply unconscious, all in varying states of injury ranging from broken limbs to concussion. Few of them were not behind their stations, lying in motionless but breathing heaps on the deck plates. The communications stations, and the navigation and helm control boards, were all completely smashed and gutted; wires and circuit boards snapped, torn, broken into pieces. In places, the damage looked burned, still smoking from recent destruction.

Standing entirely still, but equally conscious, at the end of the walk by the view port, looking down at the bulk of the ship ahead of the bridge as he waited for her, was her new acquaintance. She could sense his calm and collectedness as he stood there; could see the deactivated lightsaber in his left hand.

Her surprise and confusion worked in unison to replace the grin with a frown.

She could not sense his thoughts, could not break through the barriers that he'd erected to keep her out. She could only assume that he was responsible for the damage around her, and it was a logical conclusion she could not be faulted on. However, she could not fathom why he had not killed the duty officers. From what little she knew of him thus far, he had shown a great deal of interest in death and suffering.

She stopped halfway down the walk and stood with her hands resting on her hips. She'd discarded her robe the moment she'd returned to the _Night Sky_ and wore only a tight-fitting one-piece made from Rancor leather that emphasised the natural curves of her figure. Her lightsaber hung from her belt, but a few short inches from her hand.

"I see that you've had yourself some fun in my absence," she said plainly and loudly enough to cross the remaining distance to the young man. She scoffed, allowing her amusement to show through her eyes, and flicked back the ponytail of long dark hair that had slipped over her shoulder distractingly. "Gone an hour and look what you've done to the place."

"'Fun' isn't quite the word I would use to describe what I was feeling," the young man replied. She frowned instinctually at the pitch and cadence. Though the accent was different, the voice reminded her too much of Zak Arranda, whom she was trying to procure for her own plans.

The man turned to face her, and she visibly recoiled and scowled, bringing a sly grin to his lips as he saw it. Again, the young man's face was too much like Zak's that she was reminded so heavily of him, and had to chant a silent mantra to herself that it _wasn't _him.

This man was not Zak, though his resemblance was uncanny. He was the only person in the known universe that could ever match Zak's increasing power with the Force. His name was Varad Torani.

She needed him on her side if she was ever going to turn Zak. She knew that having them both serving her would almost elevate her to the status of godlike as far as others were concerned, but she knew that Torani would not be keen on the idea of serving her by Zak's side.

She sensed in him from the very first that he perceived the idea of an equal as a threat to him. In fact, he even considered himself far beyond Alitha's powers and ability to command. Such a way of thinking was dangerous to her plans, for she intended to be _superior_ to the upstart. She knew she would need a foolproof way to subdue him.

Fortunately, she had one.

"Care to explain yourself?" she offered, sweeping her hand wide to encompass the surrounding damage and disarray.

The other thought about it for a moment, but continued to stand there looking her in the eye as his hand tightened its grip on the lightsaber, as if he expected trouble. "One of them looked at me in a way I didn't at all appreciate. I'm sure you understand the need for discipline." Not a question.

"That's it?"

"Pretty much," Torani replied smugly.

Alitha's frown deepened. "So you decided to take it out on the rest of them as well?" she asked, allowing suspicion to creep into her tone. She reached out towards him with the Force, insistently probing and demanding that the Force tell her what exactly to expect from him.

"Pretty much," the other repeated himself.

"You didn't kill them?"

"If I did that, who would fly the ship out of here after I'm done?" he pointed out. True. In anticipation of difficulties from the planet's locals, Alitha had only assigned the barest minimum of a skeleton staff to crew the ship on its mission.

"After _you're_ done?" Alitha said, scowling. "Do you not mean after _I'm_ done. This is, after all, _my_ ship, and its officers are, after all, sworn to obey my orders first and foremost."

Varad Torani smiled maliciously and gestured with his hand. "I think that agreement is about to change."

A spark of warning pressed itself into the forefront of Alitha's thoughts and she detected a subtle shift in the atmosphere around them.

She reached out multi-directionally to identify if it was a threat, and her mind brushed lightly against the familiar presence of a person she'd never actually met, but whose presence was already familiar to her.

Torani seemed to freeze on the spot for a moment before he raised the lightsaber and flicked on its red-white blade of deadly searing plasma.

If he had picked up the familiar presence, then he hadn't gotten everything. At his current level of power with the Force, he wasn't yet strong enough to completely overwhelm her mental defences, and she was able to keep some things to herself. Nevertheless, he correctly assumed that the oncoming presence could prove to be a danger to them both.

Torani was breathing hard, as if exerting some great effort. Alitha felt the Force deeply shrouding the young man, like a thick, many-layered blanket that would protect him against outside attempts to harm him.

For a second, only a second, Alitha thought she saw a familiar spark of emotion in the darkened, shadowed yellow of his eyes; thought that—for just that fraction of a moment—they appeared to be more brown than yellow.

She almost let it distract her.

Torani flung himself across the deck at Alitha, lightsaber raised above his head as if to strike her. She knew that he intended as much.

His feet found purchase on the deck right in front of her, and he brought the plasma crashing down towards the middle of her head.

She flicked her own lightsaber on and tore it from its belt hook in that same instant. She brought it slashing upwards to batter the other blade away from her. Torani was thrown off balance by her middle defence and Alitha aimed a precise kick to his gut to follow through, sending him spinning away from her to recover.

When he did recover, he recovered fast, and he stood there with the lightsaber clasped tightly in both hands and his eyes narrowed with obvious frustration.

His nostrils flared with every adrenaline-pumped breath he took and he pressed his lips into a thin line as he took a split second to analyse stages of attack, vantage points, and grounding positions across the entirety of the deck.

Alitha sensed that he was willingly allowing her to pluck those thoughts from his mind, that there was a reason to the openness. She filed what she found away in the back of her mind lest he actually follow through on any of them—which she didn't think likely. He was too smart for that.

Torani darted forward again; swinging wide from the right and allowing the momentum of the swing pull him into a whirlwind of motion, anchored on his left foot. He spun several times, continuing to advance with each rapid spin with his lightsaber outstretched to slash at her.

She pushed her own lightsaber's blade into the blur of motion on the fifth such spin to break the whirlwind, but the sheer force behind his movement battered _her_ weapon away instead. She stepped back and swung directly from above.

She missed, and the blade cut through nothing but air instead. The young man stopped spinning as a result and ducked under the tail end of her lightsaber from her follow-through and rolled forward into her inner defensive circle.

Taking from his example to a point, she allowed her weapon's motion to pull her into a backspin, led on by her lightsaber into a third such strike before adjusting herself so that she could focus on a defence strategy against the lightsaber that was blurring far too close to her.

She battered away several would-be fatal blows from her adversary. She pushed herself as deep into his mind as she could, trying to force her way brutally past his defences and into every nook and cranny of thought that she could. She wanted to know the reason for this attack on her, the reason for his disrespect for her and the ship after the hospitality she had uncharacteristically bestowed.

She met only nothingness in her attempts. It was as if he had filed away everything important to more defensible parts of his mind while leaving a separate portion an empty void and wide open for her assaults. He was trapping her attempts, and it was an effective defence she had never before encountered, nor could she hope to find a way around in so dire a situation.

She swung back at him, going on the offensive again and gaining a little ground as he took a few steps backward to get away from her switch.

But the more she thought on it, the more this attack made sense to her. As he'd hinted, he was planning to usurp her command, her ship, her Imperium. No doubt, this was that challenge. He was planning to kill her, and then turn his attention to the Imperium.

He would ruin all of her carefully laid out plans!

She was torn from her musings by the most distracting of things. It moved so fast all she caught was a blur of brown, grey and green.

Whatever it was, it crashed hard into Torani's chest, launching him the rest of the way across the deck until he slammed with such force into the durasteel braces crisscrossing the forward viewport. The blur circled around the entire deck at lightning speed, coming to a stop some several feet behind Alitha.

Torani slumped to the floor, no doubt in pain from the assault. The lightsaber had been knocked from his grasp and rolled away, falling off the edge of the raised deck to the lower operations areas, the blade deactivated.

Alitha whirled around to see what it was that had come to her defence, lightsaber at the ready.

She still felt the familiar presence she had felt before, which was ever so close now that she worried at first.

She knew that the newcomer wasn't her Hssiss-human hybrid—classified an Hss'an—because Zak's sister, Tash, had killed it days ago. Instead, her eyes came to rest on what she considered to be the next best thing.

It was another hybrid, in the final stages of the change, but at the same time it was the presence that she had before considered a threat. She hadn't at all expected them to be one and the same.

The subject's dark, usually reddish-brown hair was matted and mucked into clumps around her face and shoulders, scaly growths holding together strands of hair in odd places. The brown robes and the dark clothes beneath that marked her as an informally dressed Jedi were tattered and torn, barely covering more than the essential chest and pelvic areas. Her eyes were pitch black, without the soft traces of white and brown that had before been there, and her usually soft skin had paled to a sickly green-grey and was now tougher than it had been previously—more akin to leather and scale than actual flesh. The ends of her slender fingers were pointed, merged with nail in scaly textures to become claws, and a row of short, sharp spines were growing from her forearms, starting from the wrists and angled back along the arms.

Even though from where she stood, Alitha could not see the hybrid's back, she knew that at this stage in the mutation, there would undoubtedly be a row of similarly tough, deadly spikes running down her back on either side of her spinal column.

Though, Alitha found the most frightening change presented when the young hybrid opened its still mostly humanoid lips to reveal the blackened, forked tongue and the rows of razor sharp teeth along up top and bottom jaws.

Smiling, Alitha whirled around to face her adversary once more; revelling in the obvious pain he was in as he pushed himself back to his feet with a groan. Despite the pain he was in, he was steadier on his feet than she would have liked.

Torani looked up at her, anger flashing through eyes that were now the muddy brown colour she recognised from only months ago aboard the _Medusa_; eyes that she could never, ever forget despite how long it had been since she had first seen them.

"Jaina!" the young man gasped, horrified as his gaze met the vicious hybrid standing behind Alitha.

Slowly, his features began to soften; the hard jaw and bloodshot in the eyes fading to a white-eyed, soft-jawed youth.

"Zak!" Alitha hissed.

Summoning as much of the Force as she could draw to her in that instant, imbuing her limbs and her thoughts with every ounce of hatred she could muster, she launched herself into the air and across the deck at him, lightsaber outstretched before her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_**YAMA NTO CANTINA; NAVII LYA PRIME**_

**29:05:01 ABY:**

Zak had been restless all day, both literally and figuratively, and his anxiety was only increased when he stepped into the crowded cantina.

There were a few of his peers in the crowd around him; each of them shooting him looks of greeting as he pushed past them, followed by looks of confusion at the preoccupation they sensed roiling within.

The cantina was at the centre of the capitol city Yama Nto on the dark planet of Navii Lya Prime on the edge of unknown space. It was a planet so badly reputed for its crime and its trade in illicit substances that even Hutts dared not establish organisational outposts there.

Thus, it was the perfect hiding place for a dwindled group of Jedi and their Republic protectors.

The planet was just one of many that the _Corellian Glory_, its escorting Corvettes, and its group of Jedi refugees had stopped by since the hasty evacuation of the Yavin 4 Praxeum.

Less than a year ago, the Second Imperium had invaded it. Allina, a striking girl in her mid teens, had arrived on the moon claiming to be Zak's daughter—a truth which as yet had not been substantiated—and had insisted on meeting him in order to get to know him. Her visit had soured after a few days when—during a celebratory feast Luke Skywalker and family had arranged to greet a Republic Senator as well as bid soon farewell to a great many of the Praxeum's enlisted were off to continue their training with Knights and Masters around the galaxy—the girl had stormed the feast with a small army of Imperium soldiers and made her true intent known.

The siege had lasted for days with all but Zak and a Jedi Padawan called Talesa Valara escaping to safety in the lower levels. The other two had been captured by Allina and transported up to her Star Destroyer in orbit for further discussion.

As it had turned out, Allina had been manipulated into the invasion. The woman she believed to be her mother, who was in fact a woman Zak had been with intimately decades ago on Sullust, had created Allina in a science laboratory; using combined genetic samples to artificially grow the girl to the physical maturity of a fourteen-year-old over the course of a year.

She'd then grafted false memories upon the girl, making her believe that Alitha was her mother, Zak was her father, and that she had been conceived naturally out of a brief love affair and had lived all of those years under the tender care of her mother. And for that next year, following Alitha's Sith apprentice Pravus's death at the hands of Zak, Alitha had manipulated and moulded the girl's beliefs until she had actually believed that everything she was being told was the truth.

She had come seeking Zak, purportedly to _help_ him, to _rescue_ him. From the beliefs that Alitha had drilled into her, Allina was convinced that the New Republic was in fact nothing more than a delusional and malevolent tyrannical rebellion against the system of government established by Emperor Palpatine and undergoing attempted reform by his illegitimate child Alitha.

She grew frustrated with his stubborn insistence that the Jedi were the peacekeepers and law enforcers of the galaxy, in contrast with the Sith who cared only for reaching the heights of power and stepping on everyone that got in their way of such a goal. In the end, Zak had taken the only recourse available to him and had shattered her beliefs in the most brutal way by showing her the long lost recordings of Anakin Skywalker's first official act as the newly anointed Sith Lord, Darth Vader.

Though it pained him to do such a thing to her, it had been necessary—and, by extension, helpful.

Alitha had boarded the ship during the trio's scramble to get away, and had murdered an Imperial soldier who had expressed a desire to defect. Allina had proven herself to Zak and Talesa a hundred fold in facing down her mother, in insisting that her life wasn't important to the grand design, so long as the two Jedi escaped and returned to their peers aboard the _Corellian Glory_.

Talesa had, at first, been incurably suspicious of the girl's motives and her intentions. Zak hadn't been. He was sure that what he had shown her had actually changed her. He _had_, however, been insanely worried for her safety in facing down such a dangerous foe and risking her own life just to ensure he and Talesa could get away.

Now, without a home, Zak and the others had been wandering the galaxy in wait. Han Solo, father to Zak's partner Jaina, had told them of a planet they could go, and the reliable astromech R2-D2 had the only copy of the coordinates. Due to problems within the Republic, Solo hadn't entrusted the knowledge to many, though he had been compelled by Luke Skywalker to inform the Jedi Council out of necessity.

Zak was one of the very few that knew what their final destination was, and that the time for them to plot a course was sneaking up on them quicker than they'd all expected.

Han Solo, while informing them as much as he could about the little enigma world, had speculated that due to its being entirely unknown by the New Republic, it was highly likely that the Second Imperium was also unaware of its existence, and C-3PO had calculated the odds of the Second Imperium ever finding it on their own to be astronomically improbable.

In fact, he could have been quoted as having said it was six hundred and seventeen trillion, thirty-eight billion, nine hundred and four million, eight thousand, seven hundred and fifty-one to point-five. Despite being ordered many times throughout the calculation by Han Solo to stop. It brought the touches of a smile to Zak's lips to remember the conversation, but he knew how inherently complex protocol droids could be.

DV-9 had been much the same, though he'd been a scientific analysis droid, rather than a standard protocol droid.

But most of all, it was Han Solo's subliminal message to him that he had taken to heart.

"_Look after Jaina and Anakin,_" the older man had said to him and his eldest son, Jacen. Zak had understood that Jaina and Jacen's father recognised the budding relationship between Zak and Jaina and had meant for Zak to take care of Jaina, and a silent warning not to hurt her.

On Navii Lya Prime now, Zak couldn't help but to be extra wary.

He knew that the Imperium would come after him if Alitha was still alive. He hadn't actually sensed her die when Allina had caused the explosion on the _Medusa_'s flight deck that had brought rubble and debris crashing down upon her "mother". Though, admittedly, he had probably been too preoccupied with the actual escaping to notice if she _had_ died.

However, while naturally optimistic, he knew that certain types of people were highly resilient. Palpatine had proved that by coming back from the dead as a series of clones. If Alitha had survived the _Medusa_, she would come for him. There was no doubt about that.

Now that they were so close to plotting that final hyper-jump to their new home, Zak found himself feeling extra wary. It would do none of them any amount of good for the Imperium to catch up to them now. Considering that he was now on good terms again with both his sister and his partner, he wouldn't wish that amount of pain on them if Alitha were to capture him.

Three years in a row? That would just be the worst of luck.

Though, admittedly, he considered the possibility once or twice throughout the day thus far that his edginess could have been caused by something else entirely. Such as the fact that his birthday was coming up in just a few painfully short days.

Physically, he was to be no more than nineteen standard years of age. However, if one took into account that he had been born on Alderaan twelve years before its destruction by the Galactic Empire's disgustingly overpowered Death Star, he was technically to be forty.

His official records within the New Republic census, though—entered into the last census by Luke Skywalker—considered the years that he and his sister Tash had been in cryogenic stasis to be null-years, so officially he was nineteen, and that was what was planned to be celebrated.

He hated parties, and he hoped no one tried to put one on for him, for they all knew him well enough by now to know how much he abhorred it. But then, he knew his sister well enough to know she would try, regardless of his preferences.

The Jedi numbers had dwindled quite drastically after the Yavin 4 evacuation the previous year. A great many of Zak's peers had been assigned to Jedi Knights and Masters and had been prepared to leave with Senator Pwoe when he returned to Coruscant.

They still had, but they had departed from the _Corellian Glory_ instead.

Less than half of the Praxeum's complement from Zak's time there remained aboard, most of them in their formative years of training—like Zak and Tash—while a trio were already assigned as Padawan learners to the three Jedi Masters that taught the rest.

Of those remaining behind were Jacen and Jaina Solo, who were apprenticed to Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker respectively. Tenel Ka remained behind voluntarily apparently because she had no wish to return to Hapes or Dathomir, and had been assigned to Luke as a second apprentice. Wanom Catoxle, the Praxeum's resident Shi'ido shape shifter, remained due to his apprenticeship to Jedi Master Maru Chidor. Rebekah Jordan, who Zak had discovered in the jungles of Yavin 4 in his first days at the Praxeum and who had displayed a keener grasp of the Force than he initially, had stayed behind to learn more from the three seasoned Jedi.

Lowbacca had been among those departing, as had Raynar Thul, who at one point, Zak understood it, had been an antagonist of the Solo twins. When Zak had recovered from his artificially induced indulgence in the dark side, Raynar had been the first of the general populace to express that he held no ill will towards Zak for his actions, and that he did not blame him for what he had done, even though he himself was one of those that had been grievously assaulted by Zak.

Also amongst those remaining behind was a girl Zak's age called Matilda Perisca of New Alderaan. Zak recognised the family name as one of the nobler houses of his own Alderaan. Talking about that with her at some point, he'd discovered that the remnants of the Perisca family had voluntarily given up their wealth and prestige to help some of the less fortunate families pick up their feet in the wake of the parent-planet's destruction.

Zak's friendship with Matilda had come unexpectedly. He hadn't particularly noticed her in his first couple of years at the Praxeum—due in part to spending almost a year in recuperative captivity in the infirmary—but he knew through Jaina that she was one of the students on Luke Skywalker's hand-picked Striker Squadron.

During the evacuation of the Yavin system, Matilda and several other Striker Squadron pilots had commandeered some of the disused fighters in the _Corellian Glory_'s hangar bays and joined the ship's own fighter pilots in swatting away the swarms of TIEs that had been sent to engage them. Returning to the _Glory_ in a stolen TIE Interceptor, Zak had picked the unfortunate young woman up on his scanners being pestered by a single TIE fighter who, despite her best evasive tricks, would not break off and pick another target.

He'd deviated from his course for the hangar for only a couple of minutes to destroy the pursuer and free her from an eventual target lock. Since then, he sensed that she had felt immensely grateful and obligingly indebted to him, and a friendship had blossomed from that.

Zak pushed past one of his peers, who sidestepped to give him squeezing room in the crowded cantina, and suddenly felt the curious probe of Allina upon his mind. He allowed her in, so that she could experience all the sensations of the cantina around him as he passed through it all, letting her know just what she was missing.

There was a live band in tonight; a strange mixture of human and Bith and Ithorian that was pushed to the corner with mismatched instruments alive and spewing surprisingly good music out into the rest of the building and drifting through the doors to the surrounding streets. The air was thick of smoke and smelt of sweat and alcohol, caf and burning tabac. It was nauseating, but he bore it well.

Individual conversations in both raised and hushed tones competed with each other and the blaring music in the overcrowded building, and he sensed a few telepathic conversations taking place as well, though he resisted the intrusive urge to eavesdrop.

Sensing that Allina was withdrawing her probe from his mind, he pushed passed a pair of hammer-headed Ithorians chattering back and forth in a disturbing cacophony of quad-throated language and stopped to look around.

He saw his target ahead of him, sitting alone at the serving bar with her dark hair loose around her shoulders and a porcelain cup full of dark liquid in her hand. Presently, she was ignoring the advances of a horribly scarred and pockmarked human man sitting a few stools away from her.

Zak approached steadily, making sure not to impatiently shove his way through the clusters of people around him. When he reached her, he planted a generous and obvious kiss upon her eager lips to get the point across to the stranger, who promptly huffed his annoyance and turned his back on them. Zak sat down next to her.

"Tash isn't with you?" he asked without raising his voice. He looked around the main area again to see if she was just involved in a conversation with someone else. He couldn't see her at all, however.

"Restroom," Jaina replied with a bored sigh. "I think she drank something here that didn't agree with her," she added to explain.

Zak nodded understanding and looked around the cantina again. Many people on the floor were dancing—or thrashing about and calling it dancing—to the beat of the music that was playing.

It was an unfamiliar tune to Zak; heavy and yet upbeat and solemn with the faintest hint of classical Coruscanti opera style thrown in. It was an odd mixture, but the chosen instruments and they way the band played made it work.

The Jedi in the cantina weren't dancing or thrashing. They were of those that were seated or standing, mostly in corners or at tables cradling drinks of varying flavours and scents and engaged in telepathic or whispered conversations while remaining ever watchful of their surroundings.

Zak hooked himself into each of their thoughts, calling upon a favour from the Force, and lodged himself in only enough that if his anxiety had a reason, he could warn them all of any dangers simultaneously with the gentlest of prods. Next to him, Jaina felt the hook upon her mind, but she also felt his tension across the psychic link between them.

_What's wrong?_ she asked; the question silent to everyone that was not him, even other Force users.

_No idea,_ Zak replied honestly with a shrug. _I've just been feeling jittery since I woke up this morning. I would have thought you'd have picked up on it then_.

Since the _Corellian Glory_ was a combat-design destroyer, and not a passenger liner, there was only so much room aboard her. As such, and even with the few Jedi there were left under Skywalker's continued tutelage, many of them had been forced to cohabitate.

Zak and Jaina were one such example, though they had opted for the more comfortable main cabin on board their own ship,_ Silent Hunter_, which rested silently on the shuttle hangar deck of the larger ship—though at the present moment, it was squatting on a small landing pad on the edge of Yama Nto Spaceport, a few short kilometres from the cantina.

_I've been … preoccupied,_ Jaina said with a mental sigh. She dredged up, for Zak's benefit, the briefest images of her and Zak's older sister, Tash, wandering through the markets in the centre of the city looking at various stalls selling clothes, sweets and—for Jaina's benefit—mechanical tools or technologies to play around with.

Zak chuckled at the image, stored it away in his mind for another laugh later, and then turned around just in time to see Tash returning through a door off to the side, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

She looked ethereal in the dimmed light of the cantina tonight, though they had been frequenting the place for the past couple of days. Her blonde hair was tied back in a thick braid that had grown now to the small of her back, though there were strands out of place and frazzled from the violent act of vomiting and looking as though she had since tried to calm it with water-wet hands. Her blue eyes bounced around in their sockets as she walked towards them, as if she was having trouble focussing on any particular thing. She was sickly pale; an almost bone-white glow under the dim lights.

When she reached them, she rested an arm on the back of Zak's chair and leaned heavily against it, gulping down deep breaths of polluted air as if she'd almost drowned.

"Are you OK?" Zak asked her warily. Even her thoughts seemed blurred and out of focus. She shot him a sarcastic glare. "Stupid question?" he offered.

"You think?" she snapped. She clamped her mouth shut as a wave of bile threatened to send her on a second trip to the restroom and swallowed it down before she continued. She turned to the bar and gestured for the tender to come over to them.

"How can I he'p ya, ma'am," the woman said in what—in Zak's opinion—barely passed as Galactic Basic.

Tash pointed at a blackened porcelain cup on the bar in front of her and frowned. "Have you seen anyone touching this without my knowing?"

Zak chuckled lightly, sure that the bartender wouldn't hear it. Tash should have been keeping a watch on her drink with her _other_ senses, rather than relying on her eyes and stupidly partaking in a drink she'd left unattended; especially on a planet with the reputation of this one.

He swivelled in his seat and watched the frantic hesitation of the bartender as she fought between her moral sympathy for Tash being victimized by the sly doper and her reluctance to inform on anyone. So he decided to give her a prod in the right direction.

Leaning forward, he flashed a smile at her. "Keep in mind that my sister is _very_ good at picking up when someone's lying to her."

The woman frowned and flicked her head to the side. Zak followed the gesture to see a man sitting alone against the wall with a drink in hand. He wasn't facing them, but neither did he have his back to them. Zak sensed the deceptive coolness in his thoughts as he sipped from a bottle of amber liquid and sighed.

"Thank you," Tash said with a smile. She dumped a couple of credits on the counter, which the bartender greedily snatched up before scuttling away to the other end of the bar to serve more drinks.

"Are you going to be all right?" Jaina asked her. Zak watched his sister swagger a little.

"I should be fine once we get back to the _Glory_ and have the med bots flush the junk out of me," Tash replied hopefully. "Now let's go pay our friend a little visit, shall we? See if we can't convince him of the futility of that he just tried to do."

"Tash," Jaina warned. "In your state, you're not up to confronting him. And we can't let anyone here know who we are."

"There's a more subtle approach, sis," Zak suggested. "If you'd allow me the honours?"

Tash swept her hand gracefully as an invitation and Zak took a sip from Jaina's drink before he affixed his eyes on the perpetrator. After a couple of seconds of prodding and suggestion, the man placed his half-empty bottle down on the table top and pushed himself up from the seat to leave. Zak watched him dump a couple of cred chips down behind the bottle and walk out before he turned back to his sister with a satisfied smile.

"_Now_ we can go and have a word to him. Jaina, comm. ahead and ask Jacen if there's a set of binders on board the _Hunter_."

"I'll wait until we're outside. You plan to arrest him?" she asked with a sly smile.

"Well, drugging a person with malicious intent _is_ a crime anywhere in the galaxy, I assume—Jedi or no Jedi. I don't particularly give a Hutt's large backside if this world falls under the Republic or not, I plan to begin my career right now."

Jaina chuckled and looped her arm under his and allowed him to steer her across the floor towards the exit. "Well," she started, "we _are_ supposed to be justice keepers."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Zak and Jaina left the building arm in arm, their lightsabers bumping against their legs, hidden under dusty trader-style coats that went down to the mid-calf. Tash stumbled out of the cantina after them, spinning around to slam the door shut behind her, which dulled the sounds from within only marginally.

Ahead of them, Jaina could see the man that had slipped some unknown substance into Zak's sister's drink. Despite how protective of her he was, she could tell that his temper was entirely in check, due mostly to his continued one-on-one sessions with Luke Skywalker.

After so many weeks working on it, he'd finally achieved a state of being able to restrain his outbursts while reliving the memories of his dark side weeks, and control his temper more effectively any other time.

So far in the past couple of years, both Brakiss and Allina had evoked such feelings of anger and rage within Zak with very little effort that it shamed him. He'd put a lot of effort into controlling that, and now he was proving to Jaina how much progress he'd made on that front.

He slipped his arm gently around his sister to steady her as they continued to walk, following the man.

"Hey, you!" Zak called out.

The man stopped and turned to look at them. "Yeah, what do you want?" he said gruffly. He appraised Jaina and Zak with cursory glances, allowing his eyes to linger on Tash a few seconds longer, betraying his thoughts.

The three of them kept walking until they were only a couple of feet away from him, and then they stopped. Tash tried to speak, but Jaina silenced her right away and spoke to the man in front of them instead.

"You slipped something into her drink," she said, stating it as fact rather than as a question. She nodded to Tash at the same time, letting the man know—in case the he didn't comprehend—who she was talking about.

He started to shake his head but Zak unhooked his arm from Jaina's and held it up to stop him. "Don't try to deny it. We know you did it. We can see it in your thoughts, see what you had planned if we'd"—he nodded to Jaina this time—"turned our backs."

"How … what … no! You have the wrong person!" he stammered. Jaina frowned.

"Don't insult my intelligence."

"I'm not! You have the wrong person. I don't even know who she is." His voice was panicky, almost desperate in pleading. "You're mistaken."

He turned and started to walk off, but Zak reached out and placed a restraining hand on his shoulder.

The man whirled to face him again, shrugging the hand off and swinging with both fists to hit him.

Zak caught one fist in his open hand and squeezed on it, while pushing out with his other hand at the man's chest and sending an invisible wall slamming into him. The man gasped, eyes wide, and dropped to his knees to the dirt.

"Jedi!" he breathed, barely able to get the word to his lips.

Zak nodded with a grim smile as Jaina came around behind him, yanked his fisted hand out of Zak's grip and wrenched it around behind his back to hold it next to the other in her other hand.

"I didn't know!"

"So it's perfectly all right to drug a regular person into a stupor and then rape them, but when it comes to a Jedi you show actual regret?" Jaina hissed over his shoulder. She kicked out at the back of his knees. Entirely unnecessarily, but it got the point across. "Hutt spawn. I'd turn you over to the local authorities, but they wouldn't do anything about you."

Jaina shifted her gaze over to Tash, and saw that she was bent at the waist with her hands on her knees, gulping down air and trying not to vomit again.

"What to do, what to do …" Zak muttered. "Oh, I have a splendid idea!"

* * *

The three of them were on the _Silent Hunter_'s designated landing pad half an hour later, Jaina dragging the thrashing and cursing criminal ahead of her the entire way.

Zak had, by means of comlink, contacted the spaceport to let them know that they were transporting a criminal back to their ship in orbit. The spaceport officials had put him on hold temporarily, insisting that it be cleared through the planetary security administration first, but they'd gotten back to him quickly granting him permission.

Jacen met them at the edge of the landing pad, twirling a pair of magnetic binders around his finger with an eager smile on his lips.

"Been doing a bit of cleaning? I thought we were here on furlough."

"He slipped something into Tash's drink when she wasn't looking," Jaina said, grunting as she shoved the man forward so hard he stumbled and fell. Jacen's smile disappeared in an instant at those words and he stopped. "Yeah, I thought you'd react that way."

"Get on your feet," Jacen said sternly. The man, obviously recognising that he was now defeated, pushed himself up and looked across from one to the other uneasily, as if afraid that, even though they were Jedi, they would start torturing him any moment. "Turn around," Jacen snapped.

He turned around, looking back and forth between Zak and Tash and Jaina, and then finally resigned himself to look down at the ferrocrete landing pad. Jacen slapped the binders onto his wrists, flicking on the magnetic locks.

"I'll put him in the cargo section. Someone wants a word with you, methinks."

Eyebrow raised as Jacen walked off with the man in tow, Zak and Jaina turned around to see a large-bellied, elderly, female Toydarian gliding ungracefully through the air towards them, her wings beating furiously to keep her afloat at a height sufficient for eye contact with them. Tash tugged on Zak's sleeve and when he looked, she gestured with her head towards the _Silent Hunter_.

He nodded, interpreting the motion as intent to board it so she could lie down and rest. She left his side with her arm around Jacen's shoulders for support.

Jaina and Zak turned their gazes back towards the Toydarian.

Her leathery skin was a light purple in colour with hinted spots of darker green, and her eyes were amber-orange. She had a short snout which was wrinkled heavily, overlapping her lower jaw and flanked by a pair of chipped tusks jutting up from her lower gum. She wore a leather vest that hardly covered her potbelly, tied off in the middle with flimsy leather straps that were brown and frayed with age.

They both knew her, and so did Jacen and Tash.

"Good evening, Farina," Zak said cheerfully, despite the arrest they'd just made. "I thought the _Unias_ was scheduled for departure an hour ago?"

«It was,» she replied in accented and gravelly Huttese. Zak had told Jaina when they'd first met the Toydarian that he couldn't understand Huttese, and so she translated for him over their silent link. «But with your greater ship still in orbit, I have no choice but to delay my departure until they are not.»

Jaina smiled.

Farina was what the New Republic would consider a criminal. While she didn't work exclusively for, or operate, a crime syndicate, she was largely responsible for the distribution of a great many narcotics, prohibition-banned alcoholic beverages and illegal weaponry from Nal Hutta all the way along the outer rim territories to Adumar and Cerea. She was wanted by the Republic Security Forces for that distribution, but only a meagre price had been put on her head so as yet she was rated as low priority.

She hadn't at all been fooled by their fiction about being traders themselves, especially when her own ship had breached the falsified engine signature generated by the _Corellian Glory_ in order to hide it from anyone who would otherwise be interested in why a Republic ship was so far out.

She knew that Zak, Jaina, Jacen and Tash were all Jedi, and she didn't particularly care for the knowledge. She vowed to keep it to herself, however, which was of small comfort to Jaina and the others.

She and Zak had tried to convince her that the _Glory_ would make no attempt to stop her from leaving, as it was occupied currently with ferrying them and their peers to a new home—though for security reasons, they had not told her where. The Toydarian had been cautious about the _Glory_'s presence, to the point of paranoid in her disbelief of their insistence.

She trusted them, however. It was the Republic she didn't trust.

"Sorry about that," Zak apologised genuinely. "It won't be there for very much longer. We should be leaving fairly soon."

«Perfectly all right,» Farina replied with an absent flick of a three-fingered hand. «I've got plenty of time to deliver the cargo. I was just planning on a slow and leisurely course to, perhaps, pick up a few more things. This delay only means that I'll have to tax the engines and set a direct route.»

"Shouldn't be a problem for ole faithful," Zak said with a chuckle. "Though, I don't entirely understand your problem. You've slipped away from under the Republic's nose before. Hell, you've even managed to outmanoeuvre a patrol cluster or two that tried to corner you in that old bucket."

«Hey!» Farina said. With narrowed eyes, she held up both of her pudgy hands, palms out. «Respect the ship. The ship does well for its size and its age.»

"OK, OK," he said defensively. "I'll admit she's a fine ship. Kind of reminds me of the old YT-1300 cargo runners, to be honest. Now _those_ were works of art."

«I'm glad to see that you appreciate some of the finer things,» Farina said with a grin. «I would have preferred one myself, but there are so very few out there and the Corellians are not producing any more of them.»

Zak nodded in agreement.

«Who was that I just saw Jacen Solo walking off with?»

"Prisoner," Jaina said sternly. "He slipped something into Tash's drink without her knowing. Didn't know we were Jedi and would pick up on his intent before he actually had the chance to follow through with it. We're taking him up to the _Glory_ now to see what the captain wants to do with him."

«Local law officers didn't want him?»

Zak scoffed, indignant. "Farina, you know what the law enforcement here is like better than we do. Do you _really_ think they'd have done anything about it? He's been living here probably years; we've been here only days and plan to be gone soon. Local enforcers aren't going to see a terrible need to do anything about him. They'll just let him back out onto the streets and he'll go and try the same thing on some poor innocent that _won't_ see it coming."

«Valid argument.» Farina scratched her flabby chin. «Shuttle him to the Republic then, I assume?» Zak nodded, and the alien muttered something incomprehensible under her breath. Jaina smiled and Farina's shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Returning to my original statement, however," Zak began. "You're always bragging about your piloting skills. Why not show them off by making a run for it now."

«I suppose that I could prove myself. The cargo I have is very precious, however, and I would not risk it.»

"Hypothetically, what would you do if our stay here was a protracted one?" Jaina flicked a patch of dust from the wide collar of Zak's coat.

«Take my chances and run.»

Zak frowned. "Then take that same chance and go now," he said. Then, thinking on it, he added, "I have half a mind to tell the captain that you're down here just to pressure you into making the decision."

«You would not!» But Zak grinned cheekily, hoping she would recognise that it was an empty threat, as she had just implied.

Jaina knew that Zak had no real desire to be rid of her. Despite her shady business trading illegal goods, he and the others that had befriended her found her to be a good source of humour. But he felt guilty deep down that their presence there was, as she saw it, hindering her reliability as a merchant.

«Do not play such cruel tricks,» she said with a dangerous frown.

Footsteps from behind Jaina bid her to turn and she saw Jacen jogging across the landing platform to them, his hand clutching tightly to a comlink.

He stopped when she reached them, caught her breath quickly. "I just spoke to Uncle Luke," he said. His tone sent a spear of warning through Jaina's mind, and she felt the same in Zak's, almost as if he'd been expecting something like this. "He says that we're to return to the _Corellian Glory_, without delay. There's been an unexpected development."

"Why?" Zak asked guardedly. Farina watched the back-and-forth curiously, her thin arms crossed over her chest and her wings beating furiously still. "What's happened?"

"It's Allina," Jacen replied. Instantly, Jaina's mood soured.

She'd have wagered every credit she had that the trollop had finally finished biding her time and escaped from her cell on the _Glory_ and was even now leaving the system in a stolen shuttle or even her own ship.

"She's dying," Jacen finished.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_**NEW REPUBLIC STAR DESTROYER:**_** CORELLIAN GLORY;**_** STATIONARY POSITION BEHIND ASTEROID A-23/Z**_

Jaina remained on the flight deck a little longer after she, Zak, Tash and Jacen returned to the _Corellian Glory_. Her uncle hadn't told Jacen much. In fact, it was apparent that he didn't know much himself. But when he greeted them on the flight deck, Zak rushed passed him without as much as a glance.

Naturally, her uncle hadn't been at all offended. Jacen escorted Tash to the medical facilities after a brief word to Luke as well, but they took the trip much slower than Zak had.

Jaina, meanwhile, was left on deck with a prisoner to turn over.

"Take him to the brig," Luke Skywalker ordered the nearby marine, who nodded and obeyed without a word.

Jaina watched them go, frowning and thinking that she would have preferred escorting him herself.

"Walk with me, Jaina," her uncle said suddenly; snapping her from unwarranted thoughts of punishing the man herself for what he'd planned to do to Tash.

Despite her training, there were still things that galled her to the very core, being human and a woman herself, and she found it hard to fight against those impulses.

She followed Luke as he led her from the flight deck, ignoring the technicians and petty officers that dashed across the deck toward the _Silent Hunter_ with fuel hoses and toolboxes and other equipment. It was all standard procedure when a shuttle, fighter, or transport powered down after returning to a mother ship. Jaina found the reprieve from having to do it herself rather convenient.

They walked down the corridor towards the lift in silence. Jaina waited for her uncle to open the dialogue, as she knew he would. "You are … distressed," he said when they approached the lift banks. He pressed lightly on the summons button next to the door and they waited again. "Is there something you would like to discuss?"

Jaina frowned, sorting out her feelings to best articulate it. "Zak's response to the news about Allina."

She maintained the frowning expression, even as the lift opened and permitted them to step inside. They did so, and turned around to see the door hissing shut in front of them. Luke pressed another button, this time inside the lift capsule, and the lift began to rise at a steady pace.

"It disturbs you?" Luke asked.

"Frankly," Jaina said, "yes."

"And why is that?"

"Again, to be frank, she isn't trustworthy," Jaina said without hesitating. She watched as patches of light from illumination panels inside the tube between decks flashed by.

Despite what Zak and Talesa and Luke thought of the strange girl they had taken aboard as a willing prisoner, Jaina was still unable to find a reason to trust her. Zak had tried to explain to her that Allina hadn't been terribly responsible for her actions, and that she genuinely was ashamed of herself.

Before departing for Coruscant with her mentor, Talesa Valara had told her of how Allina had duelled her own mother just to keep her from killing the Jedi she had taken prisoner. She also mentioned how, during their flight away from the Imperium's Star Destroyer, it had been Allina who'd thought of a way of turning the two great arrowhead-shaped predators against each other.

Luke Skywalker tried to reason that Allina had turned herself in. Rather than using her fighter's hyperspace engines to escape the Imperium_ and_ the Republic. She'd followed Zak aboard the _Glory_, handed over her weapons, and demanded that she be locked up for her actions—despite Luke and Keyan's assurances of their trust in her.

Once, Jaina had even gone to the _Corellian Glory_'s brig just to see the girl. It was a short visit, however.

Allina had tried to talk to her, recognising just how close she was to Zak; had tried to apologise. Jaina hadn't wanted to hear a word of it. She hadn't said a word the entire time. Just glared. Then she'd turned and walked off.

That had been five months ago. And in all the time that Allina remained locked in her cell, without the Force-dampening measures Brakiss had employed against Jaina and Zak during _their_ imprisonment. She hadn't once tried to escape.

"You are, of course, entitled to that opinion," Luke said softly. "But have you considered that perhaps the reason she does not trust herself is because she knows others don't?"

"That's just a reversal of Master Jace's theory of why Tash wasn't talking to Zak." Jaina scoffed. She loosened the frown and instead raised an eyebrow. "That's quite a stretch, even for you, and there's no basis for the assumption.

"No. She's proven already that anything she says cannot be trusted at face value. Her present capitulation is most likely some highly planned and extraordinarily cleverly staged way of getting more out of us that she can pass along to her mother when she finally enacts some brilliant escape plan."

"I'll admit that _could_ be the case," Luke conceded. The lift opened and they stepped out and stopped for a moment as the door hissed shut behind them and slid to another deck. "But I personally don't think it's the case."

"Uncle," Jaina said peevishly. "You of all people know what the Sith are capable of."

"The girl is not Sith," Luke said plainly. He started forward and Jaina followed by his side. "And if you weren't allowing your feelings for Zak to cloud your judgement, you would be able to see that for yourself."

Jaina reeled from the attack, and shot her uncle an incredulous look. "I have _not_ allowed my feelings for Zak to cloud my judgement."

"Oh really?" Luke paused to shoot her a disbelieving look. "From Zak's recount of the invasion and the events that followed it, this Alitha woman responsible for Allina's existence is most certainly a Sith—the child of a Palpatine certainly has that potential. But Zak and Talesa both reported that the girl did not purport herself as Sith, and had been genuinely taken aback by the implication. Her reaction to your grandfather's acts during the Jedi purge the year your mother and I were born seemed genuine enough."

Jaina realised that Luke had referred to Anakin as _her grandfather_ rather than his father; a method of personalising her own connections to past Sith, regardless of the extent.

"Jaina, you've grown so attached to Zak that anyone who does him even the most infinitesimal amount of harm is automatically added to Jaina Solo's disapproval list and filed away for future reference.

"Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing for you—the attachment, that is," he clarified with a sly grin that again made her frown. "I know that you've previously tried to avoid forming such attachments for fear that it will make you weak in some fashion, or that, like my father, it would serve only as a means of corrupting the good in you."

"I haven't had any such situations before now," she said softly, knowing it was a lie.

Luke chuckled at the attempt. "Jaina; I'm still in contact with Zekk, and he still often speaks of you. It's clear that he still feels for you as you once did for him. While you may not feel that way for him now, I know that there was the spark of it once. But you pushed it aside and ignored it until it withered and eventually died. Are you so willing to do that again?"

"I'm not," Jaina said indignantly. "Zak and I have been open about our feelings for one another. We haven't denied the rumours—in part. Though, there are some that I _will_ deny."

"You still haven't told him you love him," Luke pointed out, ignoring the last of her statement.

"He hasn't said it either."

"Don't be childish," Luke scolded kindly.

They rounded a corner and Jaina dropped behind her uncle for a moment as a couple of gunnery technicians raced past them from the other direction. Then she put herself back in step with Luke and continued on.

"He hasn't said it to you because he's afraid you'll rebuff him. You haven't said it to him because you're afraid he'll think you're like any other woman: clingy and over-affectionate. You're both very mature for your age—Zak perhaps prematurely so because of recent experiences. But you both still need to grow up just that fraction more and realise that not only are you both adults, you are both Jedi and capable of interacting with each other with utmost integrity and respect even if the feelings you currently share dwindle to nothing more than the same friendship you now hold with Zekk."

Jaina mumbled to herself about the accusation of being a typical woman, but she nodded in affirmation that her uncle was probably right.

"Just the two of us here," Luke said, shooting her a sidelong glance. "_Do_ you love him?"

Jaina glowered at her ever-wise uncle. It was just like him to tease her by asking the exact same question Zak's sister Tash, and her own twin Jacen, had been bombarding her with since Allina's invasion of the Yavin IV facility.

In truth, she had reflected much on the possibility that they could see something between her and Zak that she hadn't yet been able to. She'd had much time since then to think more on the issue. However, she still wasn't completely sure.

"You don't have to answer," Luke said. "I was just trying to antagonise you a little."

"I think so," Jaina replied, overlapping his final words. Her uncle looked at her again as she continued. "I know that I feel for him very strongly; stronger than I have felt about anyone ever before. I wouldn't allege that my feelings for him even begin to approach what you and Aunt Mara feel, or what Mum and Dad feel."

"You wouldn't allege it, no," Luke said with a sigh. "But I've felt as much coming from you—both of you. To tell the truth, you are both young and I'm honestly surprised that with the time you spent together in captivity and the past year that you've been almost inseparable that you haven't given in to more … primal desires."

Jaina thumped him hard in the arm in response and gasped. "Uncle!" she said, surprised at the comment. Luke smiled cheekily at her as they rounded yet another corner and approached a second bank of lift tubes. Gathering her composure to formulate a reply, she wrinkled her nose in what she hoped passed for distaste. "There are more important things to a relationship than 'hooking up a power conduit'."

Luke chuckled at the clever use of slang. "Right you are Jaina." Jaina detected the pride in her uncle's voice and beamed at him. This time, she pressed the call button beside the nearest lift tube, and again they waited. "But we have allowed ourselves to deviate from the original topic … however necessary to my point it was. If your feelings for Zak are as strong as I sense, and as strong as you admit, then you should really trust his judgement regarding Allina."

"I just can't forget what she did," Jaina said stubbornly. The lift opened and they stepped inside. Luke entered the destination and this time they shot downwards. "Talesa might insist she's fine after what she went through, but it's still such a despicable act."

"Zak's shown an ability to wield that kind of power for himself." Luke fixed her with a knowing gaze, and she forced herself not to shudder or relive the memory. Sensing her response, he cut her off by saying, "And I don't mean while he was darksiding."

"What do you mean?" Luke hesitated. "Uncle Luke? What do you mean?"

"Remember when the primary fusion generators went offline and we were left drifting through the Torment Nebula?"

How could Jaina ever forget?

A few weeks ago, while passing through the Torment Nebula in the mid rim territories, the primary power generators on board the _Corellian Glory_, its escort Corvettes, the _Silent Hunter_ and the Sentinel-class _Recluse_ had shut down for no apparent reason. Technicians had pored over all three systems, with Jaina and Zak and Luke offering their opinions where they could.

No one had been able to explain the reason behind the malfunctions, but they had left the cruiser and its flanks drifting powerless through the beautiful gasses of the anomaly.

In that time, some of the crew had started spreading around the legends of the Torment Nebula.

According to millennia-old myth, the Torment Nebula was one of the few charted sectors of space that even the Sith avoided. It was highly rumoured that of the dozens of ships that had tried to explore it in the initial days of space travel, not a single one had returned. No debris had ever been found, no distress calls ever intercepted.

Jaina had laughed them away at the time, but as those few days crept by at a slow and languid pace, she'd grown more and more edgy about the eerie and unexplained darkness. Even lightsabers and glow rods had refused to function, as had pretty much anything else with an electrical charge.

Manual releases had been forced into the life support systems to keep the air flowing. Luke and Mara had used the Force to contain the otherwise highly destructive explosions of a handful of thermal detonators to ignite combustibles for heat.

None of the Jedi had been able to explain the strange tingle they and all the minor Force-sensitive crew members had felt across every inch of their skin.

Then, after almost four days without power, and in total darkness, power had inexplicably returned, and they were still only three-quarters the way through the nebula.

"Are you saying Zak had something to do with that?" Jaina asked. "Torment is a natural phenomenon. It's been there for uncounted millennia. You can't just say that Zak was responsible for it."

"No," Luke clarified. The lift stopped and they stepped out onto another deck and continued to walk. "I'm saying he was responsible for giving us the power back. He _consciously_ tapped into that Force lightning power he's displayed before and focussed it through his will to continuously give the generators a charge until we were clear of the nebula. Don't you recall how exhausted he was when we cleared it? It was terribly taxing for him."

Jaina _did_ recall how tired and pale Zak was, and how hot and scorched his hands had been. "And I'm only just being told this now?" Jaina said crossly.

"He didn't want word of it getting out," Luke explained. "News of a Jedi that consciously uses highly controversial Force abilities—abilities that are trademarks of the dark side—would not be received well."

"He could have at least told me."

"My point, Jaina," Luke said, dragging her back on topic yet again, "is that Zak has been able to consciously use that power."

"OK, let's accept that he has. At least he's used it for good. Allina didn't. She used it to inflict harm and assert her perceived supremacy."

"She's capable of change. Hasn't she proven it thus far?" Jaina thought about it, and reluctantly nodded once.

"But as I said, it could be a clever ruse," she added.

"Trust in Zak's judgement then, Jaina. And if he's ever proven wrong, you'll have your chance to tell him so. Though, I don't foresee such a thing ever happening."

"Possibly," Jaina said with a sigh.

A pair of double doors hissed open as they approached and Luke led her into the cruiser's medical recovery bay where Jaina saw Zak's sister Tash laying unconscious on a bed with a bio monitor next to her and a flushing tube attached to a facemask. They passed through a second set of doors to the observation room.

Zak turned around to face them as they approached and awarded them a grim smile. Jaina flinched and went to his side immediately; slipping her left arm tightly around him and feeling his right arm slip around her waist in return, drawing her close. As always, the closeness made her feel giddy, but she was able to contain it.

She looked down at the table-high bed upon which lay the pale and unmoving form of a young girl with long, blue-black hair and an almost childlike face. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow.

Jaina recognised that Allina was unconscious, but she had to force herself to feel sympathy for the girl.

"How is she?" she asked, turning her face to look at Zak's.

His brow drew down into an almost-frown as he sensed the lack of genuine concern in her tone, but he answered nonetheless. "Not good, apparently."

"Have we missed the diagnosis?" Luke asked curiously, turning to the nearby medical droid. Jaina looked up and recognised the familiar markings of the Praxeum's GH-7 unit, which had been retrieved by Lando Calrissian in a daring move eight months ago and delivered to them at their stop above Dantooine.

"No, you have not, Master Skywalker," Geesev said flatly, hovering over to the bedside and unnecessarily plucking a tiny fold from the thin sheet covering Allina's unconscious form. "I was awaiting your arrival before I dispensed with the diagnosis; though Master Arranda's insistence could very well have led to frustrated disassembling if you had been delayed much longer."

"Very well," Luke replied. "Proceed."

Geesev dipped its head in a gesture one could not mistake for an equivalent to a nod, and spoke. "Beginning with the pleasantries; Captain Tenaha was the one that brought the young lady here. He was speaking with the Imperial pilot in another cell when, as he reports, the young lady collapsed to the floor and began to convulse uncontrollably. Rather than waiting for medical teams to arrive, he saved precious moments in decisively acting to bring her here for my _counterpart_ to analyse."

Jaina caught the condescension in the tone. She and C-3PO had done some moderate tinkering with the GH-7 several years ago to give it a more human-like attitude. Jaina had also added psychological subroutines, in the rare case that they were ever needed. Apparently, Geesev did not view the _Corellian Glory_'s own GH-7 unit to be as efficient as the Jedi-counterpart.

"After my counterpart performed its own analysis and reported to the captain, I took the time to perform my own analysis to compile my own results," Geesev continued, though Jaina heard the subtext _"to see if my counterpart had made a mistake I would not"_ behind the words. Could she have inadvertently humanised the medical unit too much? "I came to the very same conclusion."

"What is that conclusion?" Luke asked.

"Unfortunately," Geesev started, "there is nothing we can do for the young lady. Every test that I or my counterpart has run has yielded the same results: she is dying."

"Thank y—"

"There is more," the unit interrupted. Jaina watched as her uncle gestured for it to continue. "As per your request some time ago, I extracted a genetic sample from the young lady in order to run a comparison with Master Arranda's to determine paternity. However, my records of Master Arranda's recuperation remain filed in the Praxeum database on Yavin IV, and I as yet require a replacement genetic sample from him for comparison."

"Later," Zak mumbled. Jaina felt a stab of fear at the thought of a needle puncturing him to steal a sample of his blood for the test. She laid her head comfortingly on his shoulder.

"As you wish," Geesev said with an absent wave. "However, with the genetic sample I have obtained from the young lady, I have … discovered various anomalies."

"What kind of anomalies?" Jaina asked, genuinely interested now. Zak drew her even tighter against him, and she felt his appreciation for the slight interest.

"I will need time to form a more thorough analysis for report," the medical unit replied, blinking. "But if I can be guaranteed certain latitudes to perform my work within the confines of this ship's medical facilities without interruption or interference from my counterpart, I should have the resultant diagnosis much sooner than otherwise projected."

"I'll talk to the captain about it," Luke said. After a moment of silence, he added, "Is that it?"

"That is all I have to offer for the time being, Master Skywalker," Geesev replied kindly. "Unless you would like me to run you through the specifics of the analytical tests I and my counterpart performed to come to the conclusions we have thus far?"

"I'll be fine," Luke said quickly. "But," he added after a moment of thought, "I think I might send Matilda Perisca down to talk to you about that. She's expressed an aptitude for biological sciences and might actually understand half of the things you would say."

"I look forward to her arrival," Geesev said. "Perhaps she could even assist in analysing this young lady's genetic structure for those anomalies I have detected. A human insight into these things might actually assist in a speedier diagnosis."

"Geesev," Luke said with a smile, "sometimes I get the feeling you wish you were a human doctor."

"One can dream, Master Skywalker," the unit said before turning away and hovering across the bay to pick up a handheld medical scanner.

Luke looked into Jaina's eyes with amusement playing across his features, and she could almost read the thought behind that expression.

"One can dream," he repeated, grinning.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_**SENSOR ANALYSIS, NEW REPUBLIC STAR DESTROYER: **_**CORELLIAN GLORY;**_** STATIONARY POSITION BEHIND ASTEROID A-23/Z**_

Alarms blared from every corner of the room. No doubt, they were blaring equally as annoyingly around the rest of the _Corellian Glory_, notably the bridge. But the Sensor Analysis station was where they'd originated from in the first place, and Jacen Solo was conveniently already on site.

He pored over the details of the latest satellite scan he'd performed of the system; something to pass away his spare time.

He entirely trusted the competence of the _Glory_'s crew stationed at the sensor analysis station of the ship, and his performing of regular examinations of long range scans, he insisted, were not a reflection of poor trust.

He just wanted something to do after having fulfilled the unpleasant duty of bringing Tash Arranda to the medical facility.

Right now, his sister Jaina and his friend Zak were probably in the observation ward with Luke, checking on Allina and receiving a complete diagnosis of what was wrong with her.

He knew his sister only went because of Zak, and that she didn't care one bit if the girl lived or died. Jacen was more compassionate than that, or as Jaina would have put it, too _trusting_.

Right now, when the girl had shown them nothing but the utmost capitulation and the best behaviour, he couldn't see how trusting her was even out of the question.

The door to the right of where Jacen stood hissed open suddenly and a trio of off-duty analysis officers crowded into the already semi-packed room and took up vacant stations of their own.

One of them came over to Jacen and looked at his readings over his shoulder as he went through them, frowning and nodding at certain natural phenomenon that had been picked up.

Jacen, finding it to be highly distracting, linked the station he was working on to the holo grid in the centre of the room.

He turned around to look at it and saw the planet of Navii Lya Prime, large and dusty and round. Spiders' webs of light indicated where small cities and settlements and sprawling spaceports had been lain out. In slow orbit of the planet was a darkened moonlet, an elliptical hunk of rock at such an angle that its natural rotation made it look like the ends were tracing spirals in the sky. In truth, it was nothing more than an asteroid that had been snagged by the planet's orbit a century and a half ago.

Hiding on the opposite side of the moon to the planet was the _Corellian Glory_; long and white and shaped like an arrowhead, bristling with high tech weapons and advanced shielding, powered by immense reactors and high-powered engine pods. Two smaller ships, Corellian Corvette base designs, were in tight formation above and below the greater ship, just as diligent and vigilant.

He wondered if their sensors had picked up the same thing, or if the _Glory_'s crew had had to transmit the sensor contact to them in warning.

Small flecks of light in varying shapes and configurations flitted around Navii Lya Prime, either on approach or departing for the reaches of space. Most of them were traders—a lot of them criminals. But on the edge of the system was what had drawn Jacen's attention, and set off the klaxons.

On the very outskirts of the holo image, which represented the farthest edge of the long range sensor sweeps, were a group of thirteen ships that didn't belong there. As Jacen watched, he came to the assumption that while they could have been travelling for some time outside of sensor range, it was more likely that they had just come out of hyperspace.

The three larger ships with horrifying arrowhead hulls that were so much like the _Corellian Glory_ were pressing themselves into a tight formation while the smaller, elongated ships slipped into a preordained semi-circular formation in front and behind of the formation of Star Destroyers.

After a few seconds, the holo imagers added registry and serial number information to each ship, pinned underneath each representation, following the fleet as they headed for the unsuspecting world of Navii Lya Prime.

"Are those ours?" Jacen asked, turning to the nearest crewman.

During the final days of the Rebellion and the early days of the New Republic, a lot of Star Destroyers and other ships belonging to the Empire had been captured and refitted. As such, they'd become an acceptably serviceable ship design within the New Republic fleet. The public knew these captured destroyers as Star Cruisers, however, to distance the ships from the purpose with which the Empire had designed them. But there were still many that continued to call them Star Destroyers.

But Jacen knew that these approaching ships couldn't be from the Republic's navy. If they had been, a tiny replica of the Republic naval standard would have been pinned to each ship alongside its registry and serial numbers. So, in effect, asking the question had been a null point, and Jacen cursed himself internally for that.

The crewman turned to his station and entered a command that brought the holo imagers into closer and sharper focus, showing only the incoming ships in more horrifying details.

"No, sir," he said. "And they don't bear the markings or registry of the Remnant either. If I was to guess, I would say they belong to the Second."

Jacen nodded and transmitted the information straight up to the bridge.

* * *

He was on the bridge himself a few minutes later, his uncle by his side as they looked out through the massive transparisteel viewport. While hidden behind the asteroid from sensor sweeps, the current rotational positioning gave them a glimpse at the oncoming ships as they slowed and changed course for the unsuspecting planet.

"We have to tell the others!" Jacen said, suddenly thinking of all of his peers down on the planet's surface.

"Zak and Jaina are on their way down now to pick them up. We have more pressing concerns to worry about in the meantime."

"Evacuation plans," Captain Tenaha said from Jacen's other side. Jacen turned to him to see his dust-coloured face drawn into a deep frown of disgust as he read the report on the sheet of flimsi in his hand and signed off on it. He thrust it back at the yeoman next to him and shooed him away. "Once the other Jedi are safely aboard, we'll be making an emergency jump to a nearby system. We can't afford to be spotted here."

"They don't know we're here so far, Daniel," Luke pointed out. "We _could_ wait them out; see what it is they're here for in the first place. Besides, the majority of those ships would be destroyed in a head-to-head combat situation against the _Glory_. They look like older models."

"True facts, Luke," Tenaha replied with a wan smile. "But when those two get back from Navii Lya with the rest of your Jedi, how do you expect them to keep themselves _off_ the Imperial scanners? They'll be spotted the moment they get into orbit, and judging from the encounter at Yavin, the Imperials all know that ship belongs to young Mister Arranda and your niece and _will_ fire on sight."

"Ion blasts most likely," Jacen pointed out. "They want Zak alive."

"Alitha will be able to tell if he's on the ship," Luke said.

"_If_ she even survived what Allina tells us happened to her on the _Medusa_. And even then, she would have to have survived the destruction of the ship." Jacen looked out again as the Imperial ships took up station near the planet, just beyond the gravitational pull. "Do you see her great monstrosity out there with them?"

"Thankfully not," Tenaha mumbled under his breath.

Jacen understood the reason. When the _Corellian Glory_ had been facilitating the rescue of the Jedi at Yavin, a second Imperium Star Destroyer had tried to sneak in behind the great ship while it was locked in combat with Allina's destroyer.

The second destroyer had been much larger, larger even than the Executor-class used as the Galactic Empire's flagship, and had possessed weapons equivalent to half the power of the first Death Star.

The _Corellian Glory_ wouldn't have been able to hold its ground against such power, even if its shields had been charged to full.

Captain Tenaha wasn't pleased that he had been outgunned like that.

Fortunately, at the time, the greater ship had been distracted away from the _Corellian Glory_ by a clever ruse Allina had thought of in flight and implemented before surrendering herself to Luke.

Jacen chuckled.

"But …" Luke started, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps this presents us with a unique opportunity."

Jacen continued to watch as one of the Imperial destroyers broke away from the group and started to spear itself down through the atmosphere. He assumed it was going in to land—a feat which insanely few Imperial ships had reportedly ever tried—and frowned. He hoped that Zak and Jaina weren't caught on the surface before they had time to leave. Such an immense starship could destroy the _Silent Hunter_ before it even left the spaceport.

"Explain," Tenaha said from Jacen's other side.

"Allina." That was all Luke said. The captain scoffed in disbelief. "Hear me out, Daniel. She's dying. Even your own medical units have confirmed this diagnosis for themselves. There's nothing _we_ can do about it, but maybe there's something the Imperials could do. We have to consider the fact that, while they are a minority governmental structure in the galaxy, they may have knowledge of disease and affliction that we do not. Alitha has shown a particular propensity towards genetics with Allina's creation. Most genetics technology or knowledge nowadays comes from old Kaminoan records from their own interest in such matters."

"Kamino isn't under Imperial jurisdiction," Jacen pointed out. "They've maintained their sovereignty apart from the Imperium, the Remnant, _and_ the Republic."

"True, but I don't think we have enough time to request an audience with their Prime Minister, wait for approval, enter their space, land a ship, and then go through all the formalities to make a request that they share some medical information with us, or take a look at Allina themselves. The Imperials here and now—who most likely have stolen old Kamino files and technology—provide us with the means to treat Allina."

"If they even have the right information." Jacen turned back to the ship's captain. He wasn't frowning anymore, but his look was wary and thoughtful. "I don't like this idea. We have no stealth detachment and I highly doubt that the NRI has an agent conveniently aboard one of those ships."

"Besides, the NRI wouldn't help Allina despite how much _we_ trust her."

"Exactly, Jacen," Tenaha replied.

"One of my Jedi can accomplish our goal," Luke insisted. Jacen's eyes shot open in alarm. "Relax, Jacen. I'm not going to order someone to risk their life on a foolhardy mission. A volunteer will—"

He was cut off by the shrill bleeping of his comlink, and his hand darted towards it, yanked it free. He clicked it on. "Yes?"

"_Master Skywalker; it's Matilda. I'm in the medical bay with our patient. She's awake … and she wants to talk to you._"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_Zak Arranda—my father for all intents and purposes, really—had made a rather risky request of his mentor Luke Skywalker._

_ I was still far from believing that I was worthy of the trust of the Jedi, but Zak, it seemed, was intent on making me see my apparent worth. It was also apparent to me that Luke Skywalker was willing to encourage such foolish attempts._

_ I would have laughed, but it was all so strange to me. Mother had always said—but no; Mother had also _lied_ to me. About everything. I couldn't go back to anything she'd ever said to me to compare to the events of my life from this point forward._

_ So, with an escort I simply refused to leave my cell without, I'd marched side-by-side with Zak up several decks, down a few corridors and then down a couple more decks and through some more corridors until, finally, we reached a vast room somewhere in the middle of the great ship._

_ The room wasn't exactly furnished. In fact the only "furnishings" were the mirrors spaced apart along two of the walls and a row of durasteel benches against a third wall. There were padded mats standing at a lean in the corner of the room, and the glow panels in the ceiling flickered to life and illuminated the entire room automatically the second we stepped into it._

_ "So, explain to me, exactly, why we're here?" I asked Zak._

_ "I'm eager to see what you're capable of," Zak replied quickly, turning to face me with an eager grin. "That short duel we had back on Yavin 4 wasn't really a good test."_

_ He tossed something over to me and, on instinct, I reached out and snatched it out of the air. When I looked down, I saw that it was my lightsabers; strapped tightly together with a couple of thin strands of syren fibre._

_ "I fail to see the point in building yourself a replacement for the lightsaber that your mother destroyed on the _Medusa_, only to then turn it over to Master Skywalker and demand that he keep it away from you." Zak frowned, and I fought the blush. I'd done exactly that._

_ "I needed something to do to whittle away the monotonous boredom of prison," I replied with a shrug. "Most prisons I know have _some_ kind of activity sessions so inmates don't waste away. Jacen Solo said that building a new lightsaber would keep my mind sharp as I worked, and he was sure to maintain a close eye on me the entire time. Actually, he seemed more than fascinated by the entire process and speed with which I accomplished it."_

_ I stripped the syren fibre from the lightsabers and tucked the strands into my pocked as I weighed the weapons in my hands._

_ Upon inspection of the lightsaber Mother had destroyed on the _Medusa_ months ago, I'd come to the heartbreaking conclusion that the weapon couldn't simply be mended._

_ When Mother's lightsaber had ruptured the modulation channel, a power feedback had returned through the hilt of the weapon, shattering both of the focussing crystals—which in turn damaged other components of the device—and fusing the internal workings of the power cell._

_ To effect a complete repair of it, I would have had to strip the entire lightsaber down, discard most—if not all—of the internals, rip out the useless power cell and the fried modulation circuitry, and replaced it all with new components. In effect, I would have had to build a new lightsaber within the shell of the old one._

_ To be honest, the idea wasn't entirely repellent. Now that I knew I hadn't actually built either weapon to begin with, the knowledge of having to build a new one filled me with a sense of … expectation? Glee?_

_ So I'd decided that I would start from scratch, and create a completely different type of lightsaber._

_ The hilt of the new weapon was completely different to the original—which had been a duplicate of its sister, which she would still keep. It was smooth, sleek; most of its outer components were lowered or inlaid to forgo the bumps and protrusions of most lightsabers. Both ends of the new lightsaber tapered inward. The butt end of the weapon, like the one it was to replace, had a ring clip for a belt hook, and the top end sported the slightly-wider magnetic stabilising ring and the thinner beam emitter._

_ The activation button was smaller than the one on the original, but still made of red plasteel, and ringed by a thin jacket of thin durasteel. The blade adjustment dial was on the underside of the lightsaber this time, but level with the positioning of the activation button._

_ As yet, I hadn't gotten around to cutting my initials from a sheet of steel to seal into the side of the lightsaber. I would, eventually, correct that and make the weapon just as personalised as the one I still had._

_ "Sounds like a fair reason to me," Zak said. "But I really wish that you could see and understand that your incarceration isn't really necessary."_

_ "Just as you wish that Jaina Solo would trust your judgement and come to see me as an ally?" I said with a cheeky smile. Again, Zak frowned. I knew it wasn't irritation though that he felt—at least, not irritation with me for having read his thoughts._

_ I'd sensed on many occasions Zak's frustration regarding Jaina's cold and callous treatment of me ever since I'd come aboard. While I honestly couldn't fault the woman for her opinion regarding my trustworthiness, it seemed that I was one of only a few._

_ Even Zak's older sister—my genetic "aunt"—Tash had begun to speak to me kingly of late; smiling genuinely at some of the things I said. As far as I knew, Tash wasn't aware of the fact that I had her family's genetics running through my veins. I sensed in Zak that he was wary of telling her, and so I kept my mouth shut to respect that._

_ "I'm still working on that," Zak said._

_ "Sir?" One of the marines that had escorted me to the deck turned to Zak and waited for orders._

_ "It's alright, Major," Zak started. "I'd like some space, but if Allina insists that you remain here …" he trailed off and shot me a hopefully discouraging look. I shook my head, and he sighed, obviously disappointed with me. That stabbed at my heart a little. "Over there," he added to the marine, waving dismissively towards a wall._

_ "You think it … erm … wise that she be armed?" the other marine inquired as he backed away with the major._

_ I fixed Zak with an equally curious look, but said nothing as he returned it with a knowing smile and a nod._

_ "I've fixed the power adjustment to both of her lightsabers and my own, Private. The most harm either of us is going to fall victim to is a shock … maybe a superficial burn; nothing too serious."_

_ I checked the dials on both of my lightsabers, and sure enough they'd been set to a low power outage, though the blade length settings remained the same. Experimentally, I tried to change the settings, and found that, true to Zak's word, I couldn't._

_ "Just how long have you been planning this … exercise?" I asked him._

_ "A few days," he said, flashing a winning smile at me. My shoulders dropped, and I felt, at least for now, defeated._

_ Knowing that there was no way I was going to get out of this, I flicked both of my lightsabers to life, noting with profound appreciation the deep red and healthy colouring of the plasma, and the unusual sound of a low power output that Mother would never have allowed me to use in a training session._

_ "That's the spirit!"_

_ The duel between us went on for hours. The marines that had escorted me to the deck watched in obvious and genuine fascination, despite their concerns about me, as Zak, with his twin-bladed weapon, sparred with me and my _pair_ of weapons._

_ Zak's lightsaber was new as well. He'd completely dismantled his old one, which had been constructed—in secret as far as he knew—while being held captive by Mother's now-dead apprentice, Darth Pravus. As such, it had been built using materials that were available to him in such a situation. The result had been a functional lightsaber, but it was a patch-job and he wasn't satisfied with it._

_ So in rebuilding it, from scratch as I had with mine, he'd kept the design of the weapon, but had made it from matching and new materials. It was smoother now, and gleamed in the glow panels' illumination. It was under a meter long with two activation switches and two cycle-lock switches, and adjustment dials next to the outermost buttons. Sealed into each of the magnetic stabilisation rings were a set of five hooks, spaced equidistant apart and extending for more than an inch in length; the tips were mere microns from the stabiliser field encasing the plasma blades._

_ In addition, Zak had crafted his own synth crystals in such a way that the colour of his lightsaber's blades was golden orange._

_ I landed a couple of well-placed hits on Zak's exposed arms and his legs, burning through the drab fabric of his slacks. After each strike, the marines made sudden movements, taken by surprise that I'd gotten past Zak's defences._

_ But Zak admitted that his skills with the blade were lacking. All he had learned—which he said was minimal thus far—had been during his captivity on board Darth Pravus's space station two years ago. He said that while he'd sparred with Jaina Solo a few times, he'd also hinted that he thought that she'd gone easy on him; that she refused to take advantages of obvious weaknesses in his defensive movements and strategies. Zak wouldn't learn from that._

_ So in effect, I realised that what he was really doing now wasn't assessing _my_ strengths and weaknesses in regards to lightsaber combat, but allowing me the chance to assess _his_ strengths and weaknesses and helping him to improve upon those._

_ He was playing on the known fact that I'd had a strict teacher that wouldn't tolerate ignorance of an opponent's weaknesses. While most of my accounts I knew were fictitious, I also knew that I had genuine memories of such times when I'd trained against Mother._

_ So I would do Zak this favour and let him learn from me, because it would enrich his fighting style, and enrich the trust that he had in me—as if that needed such help. I was fine with allowing him to use me like this, even if he was a little embarrassed to admit that he was._

_ In fact, I even found it to be an excellent opportunity to spend time with him. I'd found that I could often tell the kind of person someone was by the way they handled themselves in a combat situation._

_ Then again, I'd been in mock-combat with Commander Corr, and I'd never expected him to have the desire to defect._

_ But as the duel between us continued through the day, I soon discovered that Zak wasn't as ill-skilled as he would have had me believe he was. Some intricate movements by me that _should_ have landed easy hits were parried long before they even got close to him._

_ He learned fast. It made me happy I was helping him._

_ At the end of the training session, both of us shut down out lightsabers, and Zak approached me with a broad grin on his face. I sensed the almost fatherly pride within him, and the gratitude that I'd been such a help. I returned the grin with one of my own, feeling just the same way._

_ By the end of the duel, I hadn't been able to land any more hits. While Zak's style was still far from perfect, it was more than adequate. He'd learned enough in those hours that I could clearly identify that he'd adopted a Soresu defensive style, and a Vaapad offensive one._

_ I carefully bound my lightsabers together with the syren fibre bindings again and handed them back to Zak before we started heading out._

_ We hadn't gone any further than the door, though, before a vicious stabbing of pain ripped right through my stomach, and I doubled over, clutching at my stomach. As I tried to force the pain and nausea from me and tried to focus on Zak's frantic words of worry beside me, I also tried to draw on the Force to numb me from the pain._

_ It wasn't working. It was as if I was cut off from it, even though I knew that I shouldn't have been._

_ Zak said something further, and one of the guards took off instantly, probably to the medical bay, or to see the nearest specialist._

_ The nausea won out, and I surrendered to it without meaning to. My gag reflex triggered, my mouth opened, and a wave of sick sprayed forth onto the deck beneath me, darkened blackish-red and thick with blood._

* * *

That had been only the first sign of something going horribly wrong inside Allina. When Zak had finally carried her into the infirmary, she was already feeling a little better and insisting she was fine.

She'd openly speculated that she had probably torn the lining of her stomach with the continued effort she had put into sparring with Zak. It was a flimsy excuse, but the evidence was there to support it. Medical analysis confirmed as much, though both of the medical units had been puzzled as to the true nature of the tear.

Invoking her confidentiality rights as a patient, she appealed to the ethical subroutines in the machines and forbade them from mentioning their suspicions to anyone but her.

They had given her a bacta injection to seal the tear, and she had been allowed to return to her cell.

There, she'd sat for the following two months, refusing Zak's attempts to spar again, though she dearly wanted to.

She should have known better than to just ignore the issue, confident that a healing trance could sustain her. But deep down, though she would admit it to no one, she knew that she didn't have long left.

She heard the familiar hiss of a door opening and turned her head to see Luke Skywalker entering the observation ward with Jacen Solo by his side. Both of them had apprehensive, but genuine, looks pinned to place on their faces, and they walked slowly to her bedside with purpose. Zak, whom she would have liked to see with them, was not.

She read from the Master Jedi's mind that he was with his lover, Jaina Solo, on the surface of the nearby planet evacuating their peers from their furlough due to the unexpected arrival of a small battle group of ships that were likely from the Second Imperium.

Allina had already sensed the arrival, though in her weakening state her connection to the Force seemed … tenuous. Sometimes it was there, sometimes it was not. And other times in between, it was there but it was weak and muted. Still, she hadn't needed the sound of the alert klaxons to tell her that trouble had found the band of Jedi and their allies.

On the other side of the bed was a girl she had yet to be introduced to. Weak as she felt, she didn't want to use what dwindling strength that she had to call upon the Force and delve into the girl's mind to find out who she was.

She knew that the girl was Jedi, somewhere around Zak's age with long, golden hair and sympathetic amber eyes. She also knew that the girl was there to provide assistance to the medical units by offering a uniquely human imagination to their analysis methods, and she had also reached into Allina's mind a few times and numbed her pain receptors to dull most of the pain.

A surge of it struck her as suddenly as a knife in the gut. Her back arched off the bed, and she groaned in pain and squeezed her eyes shut as she fought it off. Within seconds, the pain was gone, and she took a heavy breath.

Forcing her eyes open, she blinked away the spots of bright white before her, and turned her head again to face Skywalker and his nephew.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Jacen offered quickly. Allina sensed the thick waves of genuine sympathy roiling from his mind and she forced herself not to scowl at sentiment she didn't deserve.

"I don't have long left," she said plainly.

Luke rebuked her. "Don't speak such nonsense." He placed a gentle hand over the sheet covering her semi-naked body and pressed down gently where her heart was. He frowned as he felt the unsteady beats that surged through and felt like black fire in her veins. "We will find some way of reversing this."

"You won't," Allina insisted. "This has happened before."

Both of them, and the girl opposite them, were taken aback at this statement, and not one of them tried to hide it from her. Until now, she'd kept her mouth firmly sealed about the cause of her problems. "This is the second time, though I have memories of many more."

"What is it, then?" Luke asked.

"A genetic issue," Allina said, trying not to smile at the implication.

Then she explained to them how she had suffered from this very same condition most recently only weeks before departing from her mother's side to seek Zak on Yavin 4. She'd had the same symptoms; the growing lethargy, the occasional dizziness with intermittent loss and recovery of sight, her connection to the Force thrashing wildly and unreliably in her mind like a creature in its death throes.

She told them how eventually, the lining of her stomach had torn inexplicably, and she had started to bring up blood and bile. Her organs had started to weaken and then shut down at random, and she'd had to be maintained on life support systems.

She told them how her mother had explained to her that it was a genetic defect passed down through the Palpatine family, that it had been passed to her from her father as well, and to him from his father, and that it rarely, if ever, struck its victim down.

Eventually, or so she had been told, a treatment had been devised. Though her memories told her that this treatment had been administered to her each occurrence every time the affliction struck her, she knew that as yet she had only received it the once.

"We did find something troubling in our analyses, Master," girl golden-haired girl said beside her.

"What is it, Matilda?"

"She's … incomplete." Luke gave her an incredulous look, while Allina looked at her curiously, wishing for her to continue. "It looks like when she was … constructed, her … erm … mother instigated a failsafe method to ensure her continued loyalty. I can understand the appeal—the most common way for a Sith to ascend from apprentice to master is to kill their mentor and take their place. So to ensure that Allina wouldn't do that, her mother seems to have hidden a string of breakdown sequences in Allina's genetic structure that would degenerate over the course of a year.

"The idea of this 'treatment' that Allina mentioned would likely be to regenerate the sequences and restarting the cycle again. If Allina ever killed Alitha to take her place, she would most certainly die from lack of treatment."

"Reasonable assumption," Allina said with a smile. "And probably all true. But that only reinforces that you can't do anything for me. Such information on a cure would most certainly be contained within the most highly encrypted databanks of the Imperium's fl—" She stopped, realising that in saying that, and with the presence of the Imperium's ships in the system, she was in effect giving them exactly what they needed. "No! I forbid it!"

"You, my dear," said Luke, "are in a position to forbid no act I deem necessary."

"I won't allow you to risk your lives to save me. I am not worth it!"

"Don't speak such nonsense," Jacen snapped.

She recoiled, and fought back the physical pain it caused her. Jacen looked to her apologetically, but shook his head as well. "I'm sorry, Allina. But I agree with my uncle on this issue."

"Our ulterior motive for answering your summons was to see what information you could offer to ensure that our attempt has a chance of success," Luke added without preamble. "I know you are resistant to the idea, but with Alitha elsewhere—or, optimistically speaking, dead—there is a minimal chance of failure. As you almost said; the information we need to help you is contained in fleet mainframes. So even if you were on board the flagship the last time you contracted this affliction, Alitha would have to assume that at some point you might contract it while commanding one of her other ships on a separate mission and consequently included the necessary files."

Allina still had her reservations—strong reservations—about the merit and potential success. But somewhere unbidden in the darker corners of her thoughts was the idea that her death could somehow inflict pain on Zak, who she had indeed come to know as a father figure, despite the facts. If circumstances were different, she could even have come to see Jaina as the kind of mother she _should_ have had all these years. But the older girl refused to even speak with her, or acknowledge her attempts to bridge the gap.

She considered that if she lived, she would have more time to devote to earning the trust of those whose trust in her Zak sought. Perhaps extending an open invitation for Jaina Solo to actually cause her harm would serve to foster _some_ good will.

All three of the Jedi that were present frowned when they sensed the thought.

"Will you help us, or continue to resist?" Luke asked her politely.

"When Zak returns," she said with a sigh of defeat. "If, by some miracle, my mother survived the _Medusa_ … and if, by the same inconvenient circumstance, she is in command of the encroaching battle fleet, Zak will be the only person who could hope to sneak into her good graces without her realising it."

* * *

Hours later; Zak sat by her bedside, clasping her hand tightly as he absorbed all of the information she had just given him. She could sense the doubt and disbelief boiling beneath the surface as he examined her words within his own mind, and she waited for his acceptance.

"How does she know that this … prophecy"—he seemed disturbed by using the word—"refers to me? There are lots of people who survived Alderaan's destruction. And Alderaan wasn't the only planet to be destroyed by the Death Star. There was Despayre—the Death Star's first test site."

"Certain irrefutable markers," Allina said with an amused smile. "The person in question would have been adolescent when the planet was destroyed, and would afterwards come under the care of an interspecies relative, and then they would become removed from time for a significant number of years.

"You were twelve when your world was destroyed, your uncle, who looked after you and your sister after its destruction, was not a human, and you were frozen in cryonic stasis for twenty-one years after his death. I think that is sufficient evidence to at least imply that you are the one it talks about."

"But the idea of another me out there—"

"Allow me to make it clear," Allina started. She stopped herself as a fit of hacking coughs broke free from her control.

Matilda Perisca, one of Zak's Jedi peers, rushed to her side with a glass of water and a tin tray. She proffered the tray first, which Allina used to rid herself of a mouthful of blackened blood-vomit, and then she took the water gratefully and wisely drained half of the liquid in tiny gulps. She allowed Matilda to take them away and then turned back to Zak.

"This other person is _not_ another 'you'. This other person—while almost physically identical to you—has no family ties to you. In fact, the closest genetic ties the two of you could possibly have had, according to the prophecy, would be the earliest evolution of humankind. That isn't an exaggeration.

"This other person will likely be a few years apart from you, and will have a completely separate personality, Zak," she said. She cleared her throat, and swallowed the foul taste rather than calling Matilda back over to her. "The prophecy—what I could translate—mentions that there will be great conflict between you. Each of you will have the strongest recorded ties to each aspect of the Force, and because of that fundamental difference, each of you will feel the urgent need to destroy the other.

"The prophecy spoke of this igniting a war, but I'm starting to see now that the war is actually starting to take shape due to Mother's efforts in trying to locate and obtain you both."

"But if we have such fundamental opposition to each other's principles," Zak started. "How could we possibly both serve the same master?"

"It's quite possible that Alitha doesn't realise that flaw in her plans," Jacen said from the corner of the room. He'd been standing there the whole time, listening intently. "Or she's arrogant enough to think she can bring you both under thumb somehow." Allina nodded at the assertion.

"She … believes she has means to control you both."

Zak scoffed, and it made Allina smile. She'd always suspected that her own defiant streak had been inherited from Zak rather than Alitha.

She nodded over Zak's shoulder to Jacen, who approached them suddenly and held her new lightsaber out across Zak's shoulder. He waited for Zak to take it, and then withdrew his hand after he had. Zak looked to her with confusion gleaming. "What's this for?"

"It will help you in the event she's alive," Allina said. "From Darth Pravus's observation of you, she knows what your lightsaber looks like." Then, seeing the look on Zak's face, she spoke again. "Yes; he _knew_ that you were building it. He wanted you to think you were keeping it secret from him because it would boost your confidence in your own abilities.

"But it's likely that Mother also saw it on your belt when we were escaping the _Medusa_. If she isn't here, you will not likely need it to establish yourself with the commander in charge. If she is here, when you first encounter her it is likely that she will attack you, thinking you are who … well, you are," she added with a weak smile.

"Seeing the different weapon, and a different mindset and lack of restraint in … certain Force abilities," Jacen said from behind him, "will change her mind rather suddenly. It will help you to establish your identity."

"And what if she goes looking for records of my supposed life?" Zak cocked an expectant eyebrow, challenging Jacen to have an explanation for that.

"She will," Jacen continued, "find well presented documentation of inconvenient deaths and assassinations on a handful of planets that had the suspicious touches of a dark side Force user, but whom no suspects were ever filed or apprehended. And, in the _highly_ unlikely case that she's somehow breached the many numerous encryption firewalls of the Jedi Order's databases, she'll find conveniently planted mid-priority orders instructing all Jedi galaxy-wide to keep an eye out for that rogue activity and to apprehend any Force users that are presenting a problem to honest citizens."

"I—" Zak stopped himself and squeezed Allina's hand a little tighter. She didn't allow the discomfort to show on her facial features. "It's a bit much to take in. Do you know the kind of responsibility you're asking me to undertake when I've proven to be untrustworthy once before? You're actually asking me to _willingly_ go dark so that Alitha will believe I'm someone I'm not."

"We have faith," Allina breathed. "You know who you are, and as long as you keep that in some carefully walled up part of your mind at all times, you won't falter like you fear you will."

The most he could reward her small speech with was a wan smile that betrayed the dread he felt.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

_**IMPERIUM STAR DESTROYER:**_** NIGHT SKY**_**; YAMA NTO SPACEPORT, NAVII LYA PRIME**_

She was barely a month on her feet, and her skin still tingled with the after effects of extended bacta treatment.

Alitha stood alone and naked in the VIP quarters on board the _Night Sky_. The ship, much smaller than her preferred flagship, was exactly what she needed for the mission she was on. Though, reflecting on past events, the current mission didn't seem to take her interest as much anymore.

Nearly a year ago, she'd confronted the insolent child she'd created in a carefully intricate genetic procedure. Allina had been sent to Yavin 4 to apprehend Zak Arranda for _Alitha's_ purposes, not her own.

So when Alitha had arrived in-system earlier than she'd told the girl to expect her, she'd been only mildly surprised that the girl had failed, turned traitor, and actively helped Zak and his Jedi companion escape from the Star Destroyer she had been given for the task of capturing him and destroying the Jedi facility.

By all respects, Allina was a failure.

But she had shown her aptitude for secrecy and ingenuity. Knowing toward the end of their conflict that she would lose, that Alitha would strike her down soon without hesitation or remorse, the girl had shown the ace from her sleeve: a small adhesive bomb had been yanked from her belt, flicked to life, and thrown at the ceiling.

Alitha lost control of her emotions in that instant, and in her furious rage and desire to kill the insolent and disloyal trollop, Alitha hadn't taken the time to carefully map out the time until the device's detonation, and she'd been caught under the falling debris from the explosion and left for dead.

Fortunately for her, _some_ of her subordinates were unwaveringly loyal.

After the Republic's Star Destroyer had escaped from them, and the _Fury of Palpatine_ had destroyed almost every major system on the _Medusa_ as a result of—though she hated to admit it—a genius diversionary tactic by Allina, Grand Admiral Sebeka Farran had led a boarding party aboard the dying destroyer.

Executing every remaining crewmember that was alive after the destructive crippling of the ship, Farran had found Alitha's unconscious and severely injured body pinned to the deck of the _Medusa_'s secondary hangar bay. She'd almost entirely been buried, and most certainly would have gone unnoticed had the admiral not led the search efforts herself.

Alitha knew that while the woman had not done it for some sort of reward, some sort of praise, she was going to get one for it—whether she wanted it or not.

So as she stood in her quarters, ignoring the chill from the ship's temperature moderation systems against her bare body, she thought of new plans, of new ways to accomplish her more important goals.

The door chime behind her startled her, but she called for the visitor to enter as she stepped around the edge of the bed and wrenched open the metal door of the closet without a care for its integrity.

The door opened and footsteps clanked against the deck plates as someone stepped over the threshold and stopped inside.

"I'll come back later, highness," a woman said.

She sounded young. The fact that she would be reporting to Alitha at all meant that she had to be a senior officer. And the only female senior officer aboard the _Night Sky_ was its second in command, Gail Taren.

"Stay," Allina ordered, whipping a towel from the shelf inside the closet and shaking it loose. She turned, appraised the young woman, and then started to dry her blue-black hair from the recent shower.

The young woman was almost a foot shorter than Alitha, with shoulder-length hair that was alternately streaked bright red and white—which she insisted was natural—and topaz coloured eyes. She was physically fit with slender legs and strong arms. Her lips were almost full, but were such that one would never suspect them of the capacity of smiling.

Gail was one of the few loyalists that didn't require demonstrations of Alitha's power as proof of her worth as a leader.

Already a lieutenant-commander in rank, despite her youth, she had displayed a willingness to obey orders without sacrificing her own individual imagination on how to carry out those orders. While Gail had been assigned to the _Night Sky_ in the eighth fleet under Admiral Delran, Grand Admiral Farran had made many requests to Alitha for the young woman to be transferred to the _Fury of Palpatine_ as her first officer.

Alitha, having spent only mere days with the young woman acting as her personal aide, could see the reason why. Under Farran's wing, the girl could become one of the greatest military assets she could possess—possibly even a replacement for the disgraced and former Grand Admiral, Desal.

"Report," Alitha said coolly, despite the fact that her nakedness obviously troubled the subordinate. Taren flushed and turned to the side, so as not to look at her directly, and spoke.

"The _Zephyr_ is in geosync above the capitol of this … planet." Alitha detected, without aid of the Force, the distaste as the woman said the last word.

She flicked her still damp, but mostly dry hair, back over her shoulder and turned her back on the officer. She dumped the towel carelessly atop the bedspread and started to rummage through the clothing selections she'd brought with her to best decide what to wear for the day's planned business.

"So far, we've detected no traces of a Republic presence in the system at all, and no hint of resistance from the locals. I've dispatched troopers throughout the spaceport to annex its facilities until our business here is complete, but the authority offices here have requested a meeting with you to discuss the reason for our presence."

"A demand?" Alitha questioned. She selected a one-piece she was quite fond of and yanked it off its hanger to deposit it onto the bed.

"A request," the woman clarified. "I was under the impression that with the firepower we arrived with, the representative was trying his best to make the request sound as polite and inviting as possible so as to avoid the possibility of hostilities between us."

"Wise move," Alitha said, glaring at the inside of the closet.

She easily slipped into her undergarments and then peeled on the tight-fitting one-piece. She slipped her arms down the long sleeves until her hands poked out of the ends, pulled it tightly over her shoulders, and the used the Force to affix the seal at the back. Looking at her reflection in the mirror inside the closet door, she noted on how the suit pushed her breasts together to make them appear just that little bit larger, and how every other curve of her body was highly exaggerated from the tightness of the leather.

She smiled, reached into the closet, and pulled a long flowing cape out which she then attached to shoulder clips on the suit. She shook her hair out from under the fitted cape, and then turned to face the officer to see that she was now looking back at her, now that she was clothed.

"Permission to make a personal inquiry, if I may?" the young woman said suddenly, taking Alitha by surprise.

"Proceed," Alitha granted with a nod.

"How are you feeling?"

"Touching sentiment, Commander," Alitha said with a smile that contradicted the gratitude she had projected. "I'm fine. I'll thank you not ask again."

"Yes, My Lady."

Truthfully, after many, many months of submersion within a tank of bacta to recover from her wounds, Alitha had emerged disgusted with herself. So much time off her feet had made her legs weak from lack of use, and the weightlessness of the treatment had meant that she'd had to reacclimatise herself to standard levels of gravity.

While she'd shown no weakness to anyone, she'd needed weeks of recuperation in complete solitude before she'd been ready to resume her duties. Farran had picked up the slack during that time.

Even now, a month out of bacta, she still walked slowly. But as Empress, she had the right to do whatever she wanted, and no one had thought to question her change in attitude.

Until now.

"Have I given you reason to think I'm in need of some sort of assistance?"

"Not at all, My Lady!"

"Then explain yourself."

The woman hesitated, looking down at the deck for a moment in the same way Sebeka did when she was in the process of rapidly inventing an adequate response. "With respect, Empress; it's rumoured that you sustained grievous injuries from some sort of conflict on the _Medusa_, and it was feared you would not survive. I ask because your well being is of the utmost importance to the Imperium and I feared that the rumours had some basis in fact."

Alitha read her thoughts easily, saw that the words were genuine. Though, she could have told that by the look in the young woman's eyes. She decided to test just how trustworthy young Gail Taren was.

"The rumours are true," she said emotionlessly. Taren took a half-step forward, realised that she was out of line, and then snapped straight back to attention again. Alitha smiled. "One of the Imperium's … assets … decided that she would challenge me. While she came out on top in that particular conflict, I assure you that I'm fully recovered. Though, I would appreciate it if this is never discussed ever again. The knowledge of this must not get out."

"I'll see to it that the rumours are stopped, My Lady," the young woman said. Alitha sat down on the edge of her bed and tugged on her boots, revelling in the feel of the nerf wool interior lining against her feet. She sighed, contented. "Was there anything else, Highness?"

"When was the requested meeting with the local authority office scheduled?"

"I told the security representative that you would contact them to schedule it at your convenience." Taren cocked an eyebrow. "Would you have preferred I schedule it for you?"

"Right on the nose, Commander. Schedule it for midday. I will, naturally, arrive an hour later than that, but there's no need to let them know."

"Very good, My Lady." And with that, Gail Taren made a sweeping bow and departing the room to carry out the order.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**SILENT HUNTER**_**; ON APPROACH TO YAMA NTO SPACEPORT**_

The next day, Zak, Jaina and Tash were aboard the _Silent Hunter_ bound for the surface of Navii Lya Prime.

The _Corellian Glory_ and its Corvette escorts remained still and hidden behind the moonlet-asteroid that orbited the planet, safe from Imperium scans.

One of the Imperium's Star Destroyers had landed on the planet, on the farthest ground-level platform of the Yama Nto Spaceport. Jaina had identified it as a smaller Victory-class cruiser, one of the few models to still possess landing capabilities. One of the other destroyers in orbit was also Victory-class, but bore the signs of recent battle damage that had made Zak and Jaina smile with joy.

The other was a full Imperial II-class.

None of the Imperium's ships spotted the _Silent Hunter_, as their current orbital positions put them on the other side of the large planet, and the _Silent Hunter_ dipped into the atmosphere without a problem and proceeded to skim below the cloud layer at a leisurely pace towards the planet's capital city, and its sprawling spaceport.

* * *

_**VISITOR HOUSING COMPLEX; YAMA NTO**_

An hour later, Zak preceded Jaina and Tash into the apartment they had rented for the duration of their stay. While Zak had paid good credits for it, he'd also taken the precaution of wiping the desk clerk's memory of their even being there, while allowing him to retain the memory of the room's occupancy.

He would have preferred to undertake this task entirely on his own, but Jaina and his sister had both stubbornly insisted that they weren't letting him go into a potentially dangerous situation without some form of reinforcements. So, while they were all dressed once more in casual wear, they had their lightsabers—in Zak's case: Allina's lightsaber—and comlinks packed amongst enough supplies for a few days stay on the planet.

The room itself was grander than Zak had hoped for. It had a spacious entertaining area, not unlike the one he'd seen in a vision of Jaina's future home years ago. A couple of soft couches were present at one side of them room at a right angle from each other, while a singular comforter seat was angled towards the wall with a large holoscreen mounted upon on. In an opposing corner of the room was a high-power holocomm unit that required one to be standing on the slightly elevated pad for their image to be transmitted.

Zak had never actually used one like that before, and he wondered briefly if the mission he'd assigned himself to would ever give him the chance to. He doubted it, but he was sure that if he _did_ have to use it, then the signal would definitely not reach the _Corellian Glory_ in its current position.

There was a kitchen off to the side; a one-step raise of wooden panelled flooring and cupboards and benches with a refrigeration unit was slapped against the middle of one wall beside the wash basin.

From the entertainment area, a short corridor granted access to two rooms, one at each end.

Jacen hadn't come with them to the planet this time.

Instead, he'd volunteered to remain aboard the ship and help Matilda see to Allina's medical needs while they awaited the success of the mission. Luke also remained behind so as to serve in whatever capacity he was able, and lead all available fighters against the Imperium ships should it ever become necessary.

Zak knew that Jaina ached to do the same, but she placed his safety as a higher priority and refused to leave his side, much as she had done for the past year.

"Roomy," Tash said in awe, stepping up into the kitchen and opening up the refrigeration unit. "Fully stocked too. I'm surprised."

"Highest rated apartment building in the city, Tash," Zak pointed out, seating himself on one of the sofa lounges. He sighed contentedly and continued. "They'd be expected to maintain a high level of serviceability in order to maintain a steady influx of customers."

Jaina sat down on the soft comforter almost opposite him and sighed much as he had. "So comfortable," she said with a smile. "I'm almost tempted to fall asleep right here and now and just let the rest of the day go by without me."

"You're not the only one," Zak said.

"Unfortunately," Tash chided from behind them, "neither of you have that luxury at the moment. We _do_ have a mission to accomplish.

"Zak, I think that you should really head out soon. If the Imperium wants to make itself known, they're going to begin bullying the populace as soon as they can get around to it, and it'll do you good to be seen." Zak heard the reluctance in the tone as she spoke words she hated. "Do you want a drink before you go?"

"What's there?"

"Jawa Juice," Tash said. Zak nodded and she poured dark, purplish liquid into three plastic cups and brought them over. She handed one to Jaina, one to Zak, and kept the last one for herself as she perched herself comfortably on the armrest of the comforter Jaina was seated in.

Zak sipped timidly from his drink, trying to ignore the worried glances of the girls and focussing to rally as much strength as he could.

"This is a bad idea," Tash finally said.

"You're not the only one that thinks so," Zak admitted gruffly. He still hadn't told either of them everything Allina had told him—about his double. Jacen was the only one of his friends that had been present for that conversation. He didn't think that telling them about it would serve any good.

But that didn't stop them from being curious and overly speculative about how he was going to fool the Imperium, and so he had made up a half-convincing story about how Allina was sure that his face would only be known to Alitha, and that she was undoubtedly dead. He wasn't sure if they exactly believed his story, but if they didn't, they said not a word of their suspicions to him. That was just fine. He wasn't in the mood to continue the lie.

"It's the best idea we have, and we really need the information they likely have aboard that ship to save Allina," he said.

"What if they don't have it at all?" Jaina asked sceptically.

Zak thought about this, noting that it was entirely possible that they were wasting their time with this ruse. However, Luke had insisting the possibility of that was remote. "Luke seems to be optimistic that Alitha would have foreseen the need to cure Allina's 'illness' even if she was aboard a different ship, far separated from her. It makes sense that, in such an event and with little time to just transport Allina to her mother, Allina would know to instruct the ship's medical crew to concoct the 'treatment' from the information in the databanks and then administer it."

"Why couldn't she just do it herself?" Tash asked.

"Another method of control," Jaina explained quietly. Zak nodded with a grim smile. "Alitha wouldn't have allowed Allina to have the knowledge herself. If Allina continued to descend down the path of the Sith, her training would come to completion with her assassination of her mother. She wouldn't risk doing that if she didn't have the means to keep herself alive for years or decades after."

"She's … different from the woman we knew, Tash," Zak continued. "Or perhaps she deceived us all along. After all, she did kill Uncle Hoole right in front of me."

Tash made an indignant sound of disgust and gulped down half of her drink.

Last year, before the climactic confrontation between Allina and Alitha, Alitha had as much admitted her guilt to Zak, along with her reasons. Zak himself didn't need the confession. He'd seen her do it. Well, actually he'd seen her escaping the scene of the murder, rather than rushing to him to see if he was OK.

As it had turned out, Alitha had wanted to train Zak and Tash, but to do so wholly, without the interference of their morally-driven uncle and his droid assistant.

Even now, so many years later, neither Zak nor Tash knew what had happened to Deevee since that day on Sullust.

But with both Hoole and the droid gone, Alitha had hoped to secure herself as Zak and Tash's primary guardian so she could train them in the ways of the Force, unhindered. She'd planned to later put the blame for the shape shifter's death on some random innocent, securing the Arrandas' turn to the dark side by watching them brutally exact what would have been a fitting revenge.

Zak had to admit to himself, though he couldn't speak for Tash, that if he hadn't seen Alitha at the scene of the crime, and if she _had_ succeeded in pinning the blame on someone else, Zak would have been lost. He would have gone out hunting for blood and he wouldn't have stopped until he'd accomplished what he'd set out to do.

But Alitha's plans had backfired. Zak had been too shocked with the knowledge that it had been Alitha, and it had stunned him into silence and inaction.

She hadn't counted on Zak knowing that it was she who had killed Hoole. She had hoped to beat him to the spaceport and exact the deed before he could arrive, and then have departed in time to avoid being seen and set herself up the perfect alibi. But Zak _had_ seen her. He _had_ known that it was her who had killed him. And all the time since, he had kept it to himself, continually plagued by the horrific nightmares of that day.

Yet, he felt oddly at peace with it. While he carried no ambitions of revenge upon her, and he knew that Tash didn't either, he hoped that one of them might be the one to one day be responsible for her arrest.

She had to pay for her crimes in some fashion.

But he was no murderer. He wouldn't go seeking her death to right the wrongs she had done.

In fact, he considered, if she hadn't killed their uncle in the first place, they would have left Sullust in the _Starchild_, continuing their studies. They would never have been betrayed by the Imperial spy—or ambitious bounty hunter—Fenb Peub and locked away in cryonic stasis for the next twenty-one years.

Zak would possibly never have met Jaina. Even if he had, by some miracle, she would have been far too young for anything to blossom between them without controversy.

He knew he would never have become a Jedi if history had played out like that.

In some strange, skewed way, both he and Tash felt indebted to Alitha for the atrocities she had committed against them.

Reading his thoughts as he considered it for the dozenth time since seeing her at Yavin, Tash nodded with a knowing smile and put a gentle hand on Jaina's shoulder to emphasise her point.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_**LANDING PLATFORM 39; YAMA NTO SPACEPORT**_

An hour after settling into the apartment, Jaina and Tash had gone off to the central market district of Yama Nto, intent on further shopping.

Zak, instead, had picked a carefully chosen combination of clothes, and departed again for the Yama Nto Spaceport to do a once over on the _Silent Hunter_'s chameleon armour before participating in some well played loitering.

Jaina had accidentally discovered the chameleon armour systems while fiddling around with bridge controls only a couple of very short months after their escape from Yavin 4.

She'd been in such a flurry telling Zak about it, and her excitement had been infectious. When they'd inspected the system further, and performed a few controlled tests, they'd finally worked it out—which was a start, since neither of them could yet work out how the _Silent Hunter_'s hyperdrive equivalent worked.

The chameleon armour was a brilliant way of camouflaging the ship. It was quite different to a cloaking device in that it didn't render the ship invisible, but rather it projected a perfect holographic image of a completely different ship design around itself. A disguise.

Zak knew that such a thing would be extremely useful to New Republic Intelligence in order to slip their operatives unknown into Imperial ships and bases without the unnecessary missions to secure stolen shuttles and transports.

Additionally, the system also modified the power output of the ship's other systems to match it, muffling or amplifying its engine emissions and hiding most of its weapons pods and sensor arrays. Its registration signal was changed as well to match the rest of the disguise.

Currently, Zak had set the system to create the illusion and false readings of a Corellian YT-1300, registered as the _Maw Diver_ under a false name he had drilled himself to use naturally.

After checking on the ship, Zak left it in the hangar and started to loiter.

He wore a long-sleeved, dark maroon top, buttoned three-quarters of the way to the collar to reveal some of his chest, and black slacks and boots that matched the colour of the sleeveless coat he wore, opened in the middle and trailing to his ankles with the collar turned down. He had on a pair of black leather gloves that had been supplied recently to replace the ones he'd left back on Yavin 4—even though those were too tight on his hands anyway.

But the most effective part of his disguise, and the most crucial, was the cosmetic effect he was using through favour of the Force to disguise his appearance slightly. He didn't go too far with it, though. All he needed to do was make himself look a couple of years older, and give himself a harder edge, a more sinister presence in the Force, some other minor alterations, such as the styling of his hair, and, of course, changing his eyes to a sickly yellow with the lightest of bloodshot around the edges and dark shadows beneath.

If he'd been looking in a mirror, Zak might have shuddered.

Standing on the edge of a platform, leaning heavily against the durasteel outer wall of one of the spaceport's hangars with his hands buried in his pockets, he waited.

People walked by him in every direction; mechanics and refuelling personnel going from ship to ship doing their duties, officials and starship captains or crews discussing agreements on how long their ships could stay parked there and for what price or arguing over how to divide the spoils after a successful cargo run. Customs agents inspected ships, clipboard in hand and escorted by a pair of security agents who would carry out the orders they were given.

Zak watched as one team boarded a small ship with slender curves, obviously bristling with illegal weapon upgrades, and then hastily disembarked with a hover crate full of contraband that was being confiscated. Though, Zak knew, with the nature of the majority of the "organised" agencies on Navii Lya, if the ship owners wanted those goods back, bribes would be discreetly passed around. Records of the contraband would be conveniently erased. The goods themselves would likewise mysteriously disappear.

He flinched suddenly as he spotted a group of seven stormtroopers, marching in two lines of three with one in the lead. They walked by without so much as a second glance, blaster rifles hugged tightly to their chests, and across the spaceport out of sight.

He let out a sigh of relief.

Despite the fact that very few within the Imperium would even know who he was, and fewer still would recognise him through the glamour, he was still taking a chance that someone he saw would. Allina herself had never expressed a convincing hope that her mother was dead, but it seemed unlikely to Zak that she would have come here with anything less than the flag of the fleet at her disposal.

What was a backwater planet like Navii Lya Prime to her but a bug to be squashed?

Nevertheless, he made sure that his concentration did not slip, lest the disguise granted him by the Force fade away and reveal his true features.

More and more stormtroopers were coming into sight now, and the spaceport's own security forces, intimidated by the show of force, retreated back to the main building to find out what was going on.

Zak looked over to the Star Destroyer on the edge of the spaceport and allowed himself a growl of disgust. While much smaller than an Imperial- or Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, or even the monstrosity of a flagship that Alitha commanded, it still dwarfed every other ship squatting across the spaceport put together. It also had more than three times the combined firepower of every other ship at the spaceport—if you excluded the _Silent Hunter_, whose firepower had crippled vital systems on an Imperial II-class destroyer only a year ago.

The port side of the ship was in full view; long and pointed, looking triangular even from the side. The blocky structure mounted to the rear of the main body, its command module, bristled with its own defensives and a pair of small domes atop it. The hangar located on the underside of the ship was wide open, and its landing gear—

With a sudden jolt of warning from the Force, he ducked and shoved himself hard away from the wall just in time to avoid the violent slash of a lightsaber he hadn't seen coming.

He rolled forward on the landing platform, and then got back to his feet, whirling around and flicking the borrowed lightsaber from his belt to activation in the same movement to face his attacker.

Unfortunately, Allina's fears had been realised.

Alitha stood before him, her face contorted in rage as she swung the lightsaber blade out from the wall and stood there, looking at him. "Hello, Zak. Long time, no see," she said.

Instantly, Zak's newborn mental processes kicked to life, and he raised an indignantly curious eyebrow. "_Excuse me?_" he demanded on reflex.

He swung out at her, knowing that going on the offensive would likely be the best way of putting some doubt into her mind of his true identity. He had to lay the foundations for his deception as early as he possibly could, because he didn't want to get himself caught up in a deadly duel with this woman. Not when she was possibly a far better dueller.

Alitha ducked under his slashing motion and spun to the side, bringing herself back up and ready. Her blade came around at him from his back, and he slashed around and pulled Allina's lightsaber up over his head to bring the blade down behind him. He heard the clash as the weapons' blades connected, and felt the recoil of the impact.

He pulled upwards, shoving her blade out of the way and bringing the one in his hands back to his front.

He spun around, slashing again and again at the woman, pressing her for every inch of ground that he could get.

Zak soon found that the red of Allina's blade, so much like that of Alitha's was hard to visibly keep track of. He started to rely more and more on the Force to do so, as well as keeping track of Alitha's movements.

Alitha jumped over a low strike from Zak, and retaliated with a wide swing that blurred from Zak's left shoulder to his right-side hip. Fortunately, she missed and he brought the lightsaber in his control around in time to stop it mid-slash.

He swirled his lightsaber's blade around Alitha's then battered downwards with every ounce of raw physical strength he could put behind the swing. The tip of Alitha's lightsaber plunged into the ferrocrete of the spaceport platform beneath their feet, and Zak saw his chance to take her by surprise.

He brought his lightsaber up in his right hand and lashed out unexpectedly with the left, letting loose with a surge of raw, electrical power granted to him by the Force.

The strike slammed hard into Alitha's chest and she was flung backwards away from him. Her lightsaber instantly deactivated, clattering to the ferrocrete and rolling until it stopped against Zak's booted foot.

He deactivated Allina's lightsaber, belted it swiftly, and used the Force to call Alitha's lightsaber to his hand.

She was just now getting back to her feet, and Zak rallied the Force behind him again for another unconscionable favour he knew he would have to undertake to deceive her.

As she charged him again, Zak thrust his hand out toward her again, slamming her into an invisible wall and wrapping her up in a Force-powered grip. Slowly, he raised his right hand; elbow crooked slightly as if in beckons and his fingers half-clenched into a tight fist.

Instantly, Alitha was lifted into the air before him until her feet dangled only a few of feet from the hard ground. Her hands darted up to her throat, frantically clawing and clutching at something that wasn't even there. But despite this, she still wore a look of confusion and haughtiness rather than fear and apology.

Zak looked up at his aggressor and glared. "Who are you?" he demanded in a voice that sounded nothing near as carefully measured or placid as his own. "And what in the name of Palpatine was that all about? Speak, woman!"

He held her lightsaber up threateningly, though still deactivated, while he waited for a response. His mental walls were all firmly in place now, and while he felt a light, insistent tapping of Alitha's attempts to probe his thoughts, nothing penetrated them. He narrowed his eyes and tried to put as much anger into his features as possible, but without a mirror he had no way to tell how successful he was.

"I—" Alitha gasped. Zak released his grip on the Force, content that he had gotten his message across to her, and she fell those few feet to ground. She landed on her feet—with all the grace of an Alderaanian manka cat, Zak noted—and rubbed gently at her neck.

"Speak!" Zak repeated, thumbing her lightsaber to life and holding it out with the tip an inch from her heaving chest. "Before I finish the job," he added with a sinister smile.

"Hardly," Alitha said, straightening herself to her full height and pulling herself together. Zak saw the self-confidence return in a flash, the arrogant determination seeping into her features as he stared through distastefully narrowed eyes. "Who I am is unimportant for the present moment. If you are not who I thought you to be, then might I inquire—"

"I'm the one asking the questions here!" Zak snapped, cutting her off with an intimidating gesture with her lightsaber. "Who do you think you are, amateur, to attack a Dark Lord such as myself? Hmm?"

"Amateur?" Alitha shrieked indignantly. "Indeed!" She held her hand out and, despite the tight hold that Zak had on the cool metal of the weapon, it slipped from his grasp and slapped without a sound into its rightful owner's hand. She clicked it off without a word and tucked it into a holster-like strap at her hip.

Zak took that moment to examine her. While her wild blue-black hair had been loose around her shoulders when he had last seen her, it was now tied back behind her with a thin strip of black silk. She was wearing the most enticing thing Zak had ever seen on her before: a one-piece suit of what looked like softened Rancor leather dyed darkest of blacks.

While years ago, seeing her dressed so provocatively would have triggered a reaction within him, now it elicited no such reaction. He knew, however, how to feign interest, and he allowed some of that to show on his face as he allowed his eyes to travel from the snug-looking boots up her slender and, obviously deliberately, revealing form to the dark blue cape flowing behind her from her shoulders.

The silver lining of the cape sent an obvious psychic shudder through him, reminding him of Darth Pravus.

Curiously, though she was far from the spaceport now, he felt Jaina shudder as well.

"I thought you were … someone else," Alitha finally responded. A sly grin was present on her lips from having caught his obvious assessment of her body, and feeling the false desire he projected.

"Oh? Is that a fact?" Zak said sarcastically. "And this person just so happens to look exactly like me, does he? I can't imagine you making such an obvious blunder and risking your life so senselessly otherwise."

"Actually, he does," Alitha returned without pause.

Zak allowed himself to appear taken aback by this. On some level, he genuinely was. Some part of him had desperately hoped that Allina had given him faulty information—though not intentionally, of course. "Come again?" he said.

Alitha shifted her gaze past him to the Star Destroyer in the distance, and appeared somewhat impatient—as if she was in a hurry to be somewhere.

"I can explain in better detail," Alitha replied. "But I would prefer to do so in a more … private location. There are many untrustworthy elements on this dust-ridden rock, and I would prefer not to be overheard by anyone that might report anything I say to the wrong crowd."

"Nosy, interfering little rats that they are," Zak hissed, spitting symbolically—and almost genuinely—on the ferrocrete next to his feet.

"Indeed." Alitha followed a passing stormtrooper patrol with her eyes, unsmiling. "But there are many here who would, as you so eloquently expressed it, senselessly risk their lives in a bid to defy me."

"So those are your toys, then?" Zak said, nodding at another passing stormtrooper patrol. Alitha nodded. "Which means that that beautiful majesty behind me is as well." He didn't put it forth as a question, merely a statement that he had made the logical connection for himself.

"Yes. If you like, we can continue our discussion there."

"No can do," Zak said, puffing himself up. He shut off his connection to Jaina, knowing full well that he and Tash would fume at him for what he was about to do. "I'm busy tracking down a group of Jedi I believe are in the city."

"Jedi?" Alitha looked genuinely interested, and he graced her with a sly grin of his own.

"Jedi," he responded with a nod.

"Would it be terribly imposing to ask the names of your intended quarry?" she asked politely.

Zak shook his head with a deep frown. "Now you're the one getting too nosy for your own good," he growled dangerously. "Mind your business. Jedi are undeserving of any name or title other than 'prey'." He pushed past Alitha and started walking to the edge of the platform without looking back over his shoulder at her.

"Maybe …" Alitha started. He stopped, turned around to face her again, and waited for her to speak. "When it's at _your_ convenience, of course"—Zak sensed that she was just buttering him up, trying to entice the falsely arrogant side he had projected—"to have a discussion with me … perhaps when your time is not too taken up by your pursuit of these Jedi … you can contact my ship and make a request to see me."

"Request?" Zak snorted. "A _formal_ request? You make it sound as if you're a person of any significance in the grand design."

"As it happens, I'm more significant than some self-righteous, arrogant … people … on this rock. And quite frankly, I _demand_ greater respect than you've shown me thus far," she said hotly, losing her temper.

Zak filed away the look of rage seeping into view on the woman's face for Jaina and Tash to see and laugh about later. "Oh? Is that a fact?" he repeated.

Alitha cocked a curious eyebrow, and smiled, taking Zak completely off guard. "You really have no idea who I am, do you?"

"Don't see why I should."

"Contact my ship at your leisure, then, and you shall find out."

With that, she turned around and left him standing there.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

_**SICK BAY, OBSERVATION WARD; NEW REPUBLIC STAR DESTROYER:**_** CORELLIAN GLORY**

Allina frowned when she felt the needle puncture her skin. She looked down to see the syringe drawing yet another sample of blood from the crook of her elbow while at the same time injecting a small dose of adrenaline to cause her heart to pump more blood to make up for the loss.

In the past few days, she'd had more blood drawn from her than she could remember, and while she'd never had a problem with it before, she was rapidly developing an acute dislike for the procedure. It was at least some comfort to her that her contact senses were dulled just that little bit more each passing moment. Within hours, she wouldn't even feel the needle anymore, or the cold.

The medical droid drifted away from her with the sample over to the analysis bench.

The Jedi girl, Matilda-something, had left over an hour ago. She'd been by Allina's bedside without rest since Luke Skywalker had suggested it to her, and so when Allina finally suggested she catch up on some sleep, she seemed grateful for the chance.

Alone now, Allina couldn't help but to dwell on how drastically her circumstances had changed.

She still had all of her implanted memories, and though she knew they were false, she held onto them with the slightest hope that one of them might prove genuinely useful. She suspected that there could very well be the chance that her mother had left some vital information in those created memories. After all, Luke Skywalker and the others had suggested that Allina's recurring genetic breakdown could possibly be a safeguard that Alitha put in place to keep her in line.

If that was true, then would it not stand to reason that she had imparted some actual knowledge as well, assuming that Allina would not one day turn against her, and safe in the knowledge that if she did, those secrets would die with her when her cell structure broke down entirely?

Allina dared to hope that was the case.

"Water," she rasped, and a second later, a cup was pressed gently into her hand.

She took a sip of the cold, clear liquid, cleared her throat, and then handed the cup back to—

"Your name is Tash isn't it?" she said uncertainly as she looked up at the blue-eyed blonde. The girl nodded and set the cup down on the bench next to the bed. "You're Zak's sister …" she added, more to herself than to the girl.

She realised then that she'd spoken to this girl before and chastised herself for forgetting that.

"Yes," Tash said. She pressed a cool cloth against Allina's forehead and held it there for a moment before pulling it away and then checking her pulse, despite the constant monitoring of the medical equipment. "How are you feeling?" she asked kindly, and Allina found herself feeling guilty for keeping certain things from her when she was so kind.

"I'll live," Allina said. Tash snorted, a sound Allina recognised as similar to one Zak made when he was trying hard not to laugh at something ridiculous she'd said, It made Allina smile. "How is Zak?"

The girl frowned, then dabbed the again-wet cloth against Allina's sweat-laden cheeks and neck.

"He's fine. That's actually why I'm here. He asked me to be responsible for communicating regular reports on his progress. He's made a holo recording for you to see, as well as one for Luke." She paused, considered something, then added, "Not to sound insensitive, but why is he putting himself at such a risk for you?"

Allina hesitated. It would have been the perfect opportunity to come clean to her regarding her paternity, if she hadn't already promised Zak she wouldn't be the one to spill the news. "The recording?" she urged, changing the topic.

"Right," the blonde replied.

She withdrew a small disc from her pocket and walked over to the holoscreen against the far wall. There, she brushed aside the ship's medical droid, who was fussing, and inserted the disc into the playback slot.

Allina watched as the device hummed to life and an image of Zak appeared on the screen; standing there in a long-sleeved top and slacks, with a black, sleeveless jacket opened at the middle and black gloves pulled comfortably over his hands.

He was frowning at first, but then his expression lightened.

"_Allina,_" the recording started. "_I hope you're still able to hear this and that your condition hasn't taken too drastic a turn before Tash gets back to the ship. I just wanted to let you know that I'm not going to give up, and that I don't want you to give up either. So I don't want to hear any of your self-depreciating jabbering when Tash comes back down to the surface. I swear, if she does, I can't be held responsible for what I'm going to do to you._"

Zak's image smiled then, letting Allina know that he hadn't been serious about what he'd said. It sounded as if he was trying to lighten her mood, despite what was happening to her. And, if she was completely honest with herself, it was working to some degree. Likely, she wouldn't actually tell anyone else that though.

"_I've managed to discreetly use the _Hunter_'s sensors to get some readings on the Star Destroyer the Imperium landed at the spaceport, but since you probably already know the specs, I'm not going to bother going through them all with you now. I have, however, added them to a subset of this recording so that Luke Skywalker and the _Corellian Glory_'s captain can go over it at their own convenience._

_ "I will say this much, however: the destroyer is Victory-class and registered as the _NightSky_. Now, I haven't been able to find any information about its command crew in New Republic Intelligence files, and believe me I tried. Tash was able to get through the encryptions, but I'm just assuming that there's just no information on that ship at all._"

"Command officers are Pan Sui and Gail Taren," Allina said quietly during the pause.

"_However, if you know anything about the command crew that might be of any benefit, feel free to contribute that information to the necessary people._" Zak's image smiled again, and looked away for a second and mouthed something unintelligible to someone outside the recording. "_I've made contact with the Imperium already,_" the recording continued, "_and I'll be going aboard the _Night Sky_ some time tomorrow in order to discuss terms of a temporary 'partnership'._

_ "I'm not overly enthusiastic about the idea of being aboard one of their ships again, but I've taken some small comfort in the fact that this one is at least much smaller than the one you brought to Yavin last year. It shouldn't be too easy to get myself lost. The Imperials have already annexed the spaceport for the duration of their business here— which I'll find out the nature of tomorrow—and I fear that they will soon be pushing out into the rest of the city, especially if its inhabitants decide that they don't want the Imps here and start a protest of sorts._"

Once more, his attention was redirected away from the recording, and he frowned at whoever it was that was talking to him, and then mouthed a reply back to them. When the exchange was over, Allina saw that the frown was still in place when he said his final words.

"_Not that I actually needed to be reminded, but I regret to inform you that our worst-case scenario came to pass. Alitha is still alive. It was with her I made contact with—and by the way, your lightsaber is _brilliant_. She hasn't shown any sign that she suspects my deception, and in fact offered for me to arrange a time to meet her on the _NightSky_ for the aforementioned discussion._"

Allina groaned.

"_Hang in there Allina. I'll be back as soon as I can with the treatment for whatever's causing this._"

Then the holoscreen went blank and Zak was gone.

Allina turned to face his sister and blinked back the tears of regret that were threatening to flow.

Thankfully, Tash didn't seem to notice. She walked over to the projector, yanked the disc out, and then returned to the bedside and looked down at Allina.

"I should not have cooperated," she said.

"By giving Zak the information he needed, and the lightsaber in case of a run-in with Alitha, you increased his chances of survival," Tash responded. "If you had done neither, then it's conceivable that Alitha would have killed him, or worse."

"This mission is foolhardy," Allina insisted stubbornly. "There is no justification for the risk."

"If Zak feels the cause is just, then that's final. Like he said; he doesn't want to hear about your low opinion of yourself. And quite frankly, neither do I. Allina …" Tash paused and her frown was reminiscent of her brother's. "You've been here with us for the better part of a year now, and you've not tried to escape once. We trust you. But quite frankly, that you refuse to allow that to sink into that thick skull of yours is rather annoying. As far as any one of us on board is concerned, when Luke trusts someone, then they've done something to earn that trust. If you weren't a trustworthy person, you wouldn't have helped Zak and Talesa escape from _your_ custody. You wouldn't have then protected them from _your_ mother while they were trying to escape. And it was _your_ plan, as I understand it, that caused those two Imperium ships to open fire on one another."

"It was," Allina admitted with a nod. She coughed, and Tash brought the cup of water back to her hand. She gulped it down greedily before giving it back. "But the situation never would have arisen if I hadn't let myself be deceived so fully. If I had just let myself _question_ my teachings … if I'd _demanded_ to hear both sides of the conflict, I might never have done what I did."

"And you would be dead because of it. Alitha wouldn't have allowed you to continue on like that. She either would have disposed of you entirely and tried again from scratch, or she would have erased your memories and replaced them with new ones. Either way, you wouldn't be who you are now, and my brother could very well be in some very serious trouble if not for your timely intervention."

"I've heard this before," Allina admitted, "from Skywalker."

"Did it ever occur to you that he's right?" Tash challenged. Allina recoiled. "No, it didn't, did it?"

She didn't answer the question, but continued on track. "Zak's lover doesn't trust me," she pressed. It actually made the blonde smile. "What?"

"Jaina has lists," Tash said plainly. "There's the 'nice' list, and then there's the 'did wrong by my family' list, the 'did wrong by my friends' list, and the 'did wrong by Zak' list. Unfortunately, as she sees it, you fall into that fourth category. Your current submissiveness is, as she warns, possibly just another trick—that you're just trying to find out where it is we're headed so Alitha can ambush us there."

"Never!"

"I know that," Tash said gently. "And I think, on some level, so does Jaina. But she and Zak formed a close bond when they were held captive by Brakiss. When Zak turned to the dark side as a result of that captivity, it hurt her deeply. I thought that I would be the most affected by it, but I found out soon enough how wrong I was.

"Though she still won't admit it to anyone, it tore her up inside to see him doing the things he did, and to know that it was her duty to stop him by whatever means she could. So seeing something happen to him again just put her on the defensive."

She saw the anguished look on Allina's face and placed a gentle hand on her arm, patted it. "She'll come around," she said. "Eventually."

Allina was about to respond when she was cut off by a shrill beep at Tash's waist. The girl reached down and plucked a comlink from her belt, and clicked the receiver to life.

It crackled with attenuating static as the frequencies matched up before a man's voice spoke through it.

"_Tash, I understand you have something for me?_" It was Luke Skywalker.

Tash smiled, pressed down on the transceiver, and spoke. "Yes, I was just showing it to Allina first, since it contained a message for her."

"_That's perfectly all right. Bring it up to the bridge when you're done down there. The good captain and I would like to go over the sensor information Zak was able to get a hold of._"

"I'm on my way up now, Master Skywalker," Tash said, and then she clicked the comlink off and clipped it back onto her belt. She looked back down at Allina, her blue eyes full only of sympathy that was so similar in Zak's brown ones. "Try and keep in mind what I've just said. You really do deserve a second chance, Allina."

Allina didn't reply. Instead, she watched as Tash took the now empty cup over to the medical droid and then left the medical bay. Left to her thoughts, she began, once more, to wonder.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

_**IMPERIUM VICTORY DESTROYER:**_** NIGHT SKY**_**; YAMA NTO SPACEPORT, NAVII LYA PRIME**_

Zak was in awe at the sights around him. After all, he had never been on the _command bridge_ of a Star Destroyer before. And while this one was much smaller than most other Star Destroyer models, he assumed that the bridge layout was much the same.

He wasn't, however, able to enjoy his awe alone. Not only was he escorted to the bridge by a pair of burly-looking stormtroopers who said not a word since they were sent to the ground to retrieve him, but he could feel the constant presence of Jaina in his mind.

He wasn't incensed by her intrusiveness, merely touched. He knew that she was herself enjoying the spectacle, as well as keeping an eye on his wellbeing.

Tash was likely to be returning from the _Corellian Glory_ sometime today, and Zak was indeed not looking forward to hearing the report about Allina's deterioration.

However, he was shrewd enough to keep thoughts of either his sister or Jaina locked away in a separate and inaccessible section of his mind protected by innumerable mental barriers and traps, so that he wouldn't alert Alitha to his duplicity.

Only yesterday, after sending Tash to the _Corellian Glory_ with his message for Allina, he'd contacted the _Night Sky_'s communications officer. Feigning arrogance, he'd demanded an audience with the ship's commander, knowing that Alitha's position as leader of the Second Imperium would supplant any military rank for as long as she was on board. The officer on duty hadn't at all been impressed by his showy attitude and had instead recorded down a time for Zak to see the ship's second in command instead.

Zak knew that it was just standard procedure. They'd make him wait for a little before Alitha would see him, so that she could assert her own importance over that which Zak projected. As such, Zak knew that he was going to have to counter their efforts by appearing as increasingly arrogant and impatient as he could.

"Can I help you, uh, sir?" a nearby officer asked. Zak turned his gaze onto the young man.

He was in standard greys with an ensign's rank bar pinned to his breast. In his hand was a sheet of flimsi which Zak arrogantly snatched from him, glanced at, and then thrust back into his bewildered hands.

"Excuse me!" he exclaimed indignantly.

"You're excused," Zak said with an arrogant huff. He looked around the deck for a senior officer, but found none. "I'm here to see your commander, not a minor functionary. Now be a good little nerf and fetch them."

"Dismissed, ensign," a voice said from behind him. It wasn't Alitha's voice, but Zak still smiled when he turned around.

A woman had come up behind him. She too was wearing the standard olive-grey of a commissioned officer, and the uniform was perfectly cut and smoothed without a single fold out of place. Her rank, however, indicated her to be the person he was after.

"How dare you act in such a manner aboard this ship as a mere _guest_? You will show the proper respect!" she spat angrily.

Zak looked her over once and quickly, ignoring the jealous sting he felt across the link to Jaina and sending his own reassurance back to her that it was just to fit into the role.

The lieutenant-commander that stood before him was beautiful enough in her own way, he surmised. She had a slender figure, with shoulder length hair that was streaked bright red and white alternately. Her eyes were the colour of topaz she had almost full lips. He suspected that this woman never smiled, and knew it would be a waste of his time to try put her in a situation where a normal woman _would_ smile.

He frowned.

"Who are you?" he demanded arrogantly. He put his hands on his hips, deliberately drawing his coat to the sides to reveal the lightsaber hanging from the right side of his belt.

"Lieutenant-commander Gail Taren," the woman shot back just the same. Like Zak had, she looked him up and down, assessing him with more interest than he had shown. Apparently satisfied, or dissatisfied, with what she saw, she frowned and continued. "Second in command. Who are you and what business do you have trying to demand a meeting with the Empress?"

"Empress?" Zak said, eyebrow cocked in amusement. Allina had never told Zak or any of the others that Alitha had crowned herself Empress of the Second Imperium. Did she know?

He thought back to the invasion of Yavin 4 a year ago, and remembered that the Imperium's soldiers under Allina's command had called her "princess." Taking that into account, he knew that Allina was aware of her mother's title as well. Perhaps she'd just decided it wasn't really a relevant piece of information to the mission. Or perhaps she just didn't care about it anymore.

Gail Taren folded her arms across her chest impatiently and waited. "I saw your _Empress_ yesterday, I believe. Tall woman, dark hair and eyes like mine, in possession of one of these?" He patted his lightsaber knowingly and felt the stormtroopers on either side of him tense in warning. He smiled. "She was the one that suggested I make a request to see her. We have business to discuss. Now take me to her."

"By what authority do you give orders on _this_ ship, mister?" Taren screeched.

Zak patted his lightsaber again. "This gives me all the authority I need. Now do as you're told and take me to the woman in charge. Or do I need to start killing people before you change your mind?"

Alarm shot through the woman's eyes, and she looked down at his lightsaber and then back up, as if trying to assess the likelihood that he would follow through on the threat. Or maybe she was trying to quickly calculate the chances that he could move fast enough to cut down enough people on the bridge before she sounded an alarm that such an alarm would be a pointless gesture.

For his part, Zak made sure that the only thing Gail Taren saw on his face was arrogant disinterest in her and her crew; anger and inpatient that he'd been stopped by her for this long instead of being led to his appointment.

"Follow me," she said.

"There's no need, Gail," another voice said from behind her. Zak tilted his head to the side and looked over Taren's shoulder to see that Alitha was already striding across the catwalk down the centre of the bridge towards them.

She was wearing the same attire she'd worn the previous day, except this time she'd forgone the flowing cape. Her hair was once again loose around her shoulders, and her eyes flashed with cautious welcome as they came to rest on Zak.

"Our guest is perfectly welcome aboard this ship," Alitha continued, smiling now. "As long as he has a guard on him at all times."

Zak tried hard not to grimace, not to allow himself to be reminded once more of the manka cats of Alderaan. He returned her smile with a sarcastic one of his own and stepped around the lieutenant-commander without another word to her.

"Some ship," Zak said with genuine awe as he followed Alitha towards the rear of the deck towards the turbo lifts. "Which is more than I can say for its commanders or its junior officers," he added with a forced scowl and a glance over his shoulder at Taren.

They stopped at the lifts and Zak felt Alitha reach out with the Force to the call button. They waited. "I'm sure no harm was intended. After all, you are a stranger on board this ship—a stranger that insisted on seeing me—and that warrants some measures of suspicion."

"And if you hadn't shown up at that time," Zak started, "I might have been detained a lot longer. Do you realise I have other matters which require my attention? I might actually have followed through with my implied threat of mass murder."

"We all have other matters to attend to, young man," Alitha said sternly. "That's why we plan around them when the unexpected happens."

The lift arrived then and Zak stepped into it first, once again showing his complete disregard and disinterest of her power. She hesitated for a second, taken aback, and then followed him in with a knowing smile.

The door closed behind her, she physically pressed a button to take them to another deck, and the lift shot downward.

"Victory-class, am I right?" Zak asked casually. "Support ship for the Imperial fleet?"

"Right you are," Alitha replied without looking at him. "But not just for the Imperial fleet. The New Republic has started to phase the old Empire's ship designs into their fleet, and as the rightful heirs to the Empire, the Second Imperium uses those ships as well. However, we do not weaken ourselves using second-hand ships."

"I would have thought the _Empress_ of the Second Imperium might have shown up with something grander; an Imperial- or Executor-class, for example. What's the matter? Running out of ships?"

"Quite the contrary," Alitha said. "We have far more ships than the Republic knows about." Zak scowled, and then hurried to cover the expression before she spotted it. However, she seemed to have known it was there anyway and misinterpreted it. "No fan of the Republic?"

"Not in the slightest. The Republic is nothing more than a group of bantering old men and women deluding themselves into thinking they have the right to make decisions for the rest of the galaxy, debating and squabbling and wasting time." He flicked a speck of dust from his sleeve and then folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the wall of the lift capsule. "Highly inefficient system. But that being said, Palpatine was no different."

A flash of anger crossed Alitha's face, and Zak suppressed the smile at having stung her. "How so?"

"He deluded himself into thinking he had total control of the galaxy. He didn't predict the strength and resolve of the Rebellion, and in fact aided in its formation. He left too many of the important decisions to Vader and his Moffs, decisions which he alone should have made. He tried not once, but twice, to create an ultimate super weapon that could vaporise planets to bring the Rebels in line, and didn't foresee that it would do the complete opposite. And he had too much control over the military."

Alitha gave him a look that invited him to explain.

"The Battle of Endor," Zak said, looking her dead in the eye. "It wasn't the destruction of the Death Star, or the _Executor_ that defeated the Imperials; it was the death of Palpatine. He wanted to have ultimate control, which meant imposing himself upon the hearts and minds of every last officer and soldier in the Imperial Navy.

"When he died, the whole fleet was shattered. They had no idea what they should do, or how they should do it. So they fought on for as long as they could, but they fought on like first year academy cadets using a simulator for the first time. They had superior numbers to the Rebel fleet, and they could have—_should_ have crushed the Rebellion right then and there. But because they were so stung by the death of the Emperor, they weren't using their heads.

"The truth was that the military was just as bad as the Empire's leadership, because the command structure had been stupid enough to allow the Emperor to use them in the way he had."

"I believe you're not the first to state such a fact," Alitha said coldly. "Grand Admiral Thrawn of the Imperial Remnant stated as much when he began his campaign against the Republic twenty years ago."

"I must say that was a masterpiece," Zak said with a feigned sigh. "I was only a child at the time, living with my loyalist parents on Coruscant. But when we heard about the news that Thrawn had successfully routed several Republic fleets and captured a number of systems, we were all thrilled. And then they, of course, were killed during the siege on Coruscant itself. But for that I blamed, and continue to blame, the Republic, not the Remnant."

"The Remnant is a disgrace to what the Empire had once been," Alitha returned.

The lift doors opened onto another deck and she swept out of the lift before Zak had a chance to pass her by. Eyebrow raised, he picked up speed until he walked beside her and the matched her own pace.

"Cowards and traitors—the lot of them. They still have the nerve to consider themselves the Empire. When Thrawn's campaign against the Republic failed, they had no commander strong enough in his conviction to lead the Remnant to victory and restore the Empire to glory."

"And you think you're the person to do that?" Zak questioned.

"Yes," Alitha replied without pause. She shot a sidelong glance at him and chuckled at the expression he rewarded her with. "I know what you're thinking. Another Palpatine in charge of another Imperial government bent on controlling the galaxy through fear and intimidation. Another Sith who would dare to control everything for their own glory."

"That pretty much sums it up for me," Zak said with a nod. He didn't have to force the comment. He actually did think that. "Though, I don't agree with your pronouncement at being Sith."

Alitha stopped and whirled to face him, whipping the back of her hand hard across his face. He recoiled, ignored Jaina's stab of hatred seeping into his thoughts, and recovered quickly. The look he shot at Alitha was full of loathing and disgust, and the desire to exact payment for the strike. Every last ounce of those emotions was genuinely felt.

"How _dare_ you!" he hissed, his hand darting for the lightsaber at his hip.

"Don't!" Alitha snapped back just as angrily. Zak felt pressure against his stomach and looked down to see the tips of the forward-arcing guard hooks on her lightsaber's handle pressed against him. He looked down at his own hand, which was still only halfway to his own lightsaber, and then glared back up at Alitha, baring his teeth. "Do you dare to question my worthiness to carry the title of Sith?"

"Indeed, I question it." He didn't flinch, didn't waver, and he batted away her deceptively clumsy attempts to probe his thoughts. "You have yet to prove your worth to me," he added. He readied himself for the eventual searing of the lightsaber passing through his gut, knowing that the defiance he presented to her would probably earn him that if he succeeded in pushing her temper _too_ far. "Just because you are the daughter of a Sith, that does not mean you deserve the honour yourself."

Allina surprised him. She smiled, and belted her lightsaber once more. "Come," she said as she turned on her heel to continue onwards.

* * *

"So, you know who I am," Alitha started ten minutes later when they were in the solitude of what she designated her private meditation sanctum. "You still haven't told me who you are, however, and my curiosity is at a peak."

She was facing away from him now, and he knew that should he choose to strike her, he would have the advantage of surprise. His mental barriers were reinforced by Jaina's continual presence, and a mental strength beyond what he thought himself capable of. Alitha would not be able to read his intentions, and would instead have to rely on her own instincts to warn her of any impending deception.

_Don't do it_, he heard quietly in his thoughts. It wasn't Jaina's "voice", however, and it made him frown in confusion.

_Who was that?_ he heard the familiar feel of Jaina's thoughts drift into his own. He let her read his own confusion, his own lack of knowing, and then shut her out so that he could concentrate on the situation at hand.

"My name is Varad Torani," he replied, mentally bringing up the biography Tash had created and then helped him memorise in case Alitha started digging for information. "My parents were Wulfric and Redina Torani of the _Executor_'s marine complement, on temporary leave when the Battle of Endor occurred."

"Force sensitives?" Alitha asked as if expecting the answer to be yes.

"No," Zak replied. She turned around to face him, her fingers playing gently along a golden, waist-high rail along the wall she faced. "You know what your father was like. If they'd been Force sensitives he would have had them killed."

"True," Alitha acknowledged with a nod. "When did they discover your potential."

"They didn't. The first memory I have was of moving something without touching it. Even with the death of Palpatine, I knew that there would be loyalists out there who would not approve of a Force sensitive that could be a threat to them, and I suspected that my parents would be amongst those. I kept it from them. As such, even the pitiful Jedi did not ever discover me and attempt to indoctrinate me into their disgusting excuse for an Order."

"Very talented, for a child," Alitha granted. She slowly walked alongside the rail, allowing her fingertips to drag along its golden shine. "Any other family?"

"Not that I'm aware of." He stood completely straight, his eyes locked on her every step, expecting an attack at any moment should she discover he was lying to her. "You?"

She hesitated, considering whether or not she wanted to divulge that much, and then smiled. "Not anymore," she said slyly.

A stab of horror punctured Zak, and he couldn't contain the gasp of shock. She'd had other family besides Emperor Palpatine, whether they had known it or not.

Had she killed every last one of them herself in order to ensure none of them would be a threat to her? Or had she appointed the task to some lowly assassin squad or bounty hunter?

She saw his reaction, and responded with a grin. She relished in his surprise, in his horror. Possibly, his reaction had been taken indirectly as a show of submission; the realisation that she could outmatch him by far.

Zak wondered if any others of her family—Brothers? Sisters? Cousins?—had been able to touch the Force like her. Were they all loyalists awaiting the rise of the Empire to prominence once more, or were some of them unaware of their connection to the Palpatine line and had joined the Rebellion, and even the Republic, in its struggles?

"I once had a great many brothers and sisters," she said, stepping away from the wall and approaching him slowly. "Not one of them was aware that my father was theirs, and I doubt that my father knew of the existence of all of them, if any at all. I myself didn't know it until I was approached by Vader under orders from my father to teach me. I do not know if any of my siblings possessed any connection to the Force, but I do know that not one of them was able to see what was coming to them, and not one was able to stop it. A number of them had joined the Rebellion, and then happily become citizens of the New Republic. As such, I didn't particularly need any other reason to kill them other than their traitorous allegiances."

"And the others? What of those that were loyal to the Palpatine name? What reason did you have for murdering them?"

"Security. Any one of them was a potential threat to my legitimacy as the Empress, and if even one of them had found the strength to challenge me, it would have planted the seeds of doubt and discord amongst all of the other loyalists who would otherwise follow my orders without question."

She raised her left hand to the wall near the door and Zak felt her punch in a command for the internal communications. "_Bridge,_" came the familiar voice of Gail Taren.

"Commander, see what you can find in the New Republic's intelligence files on one Varad Torani—tee-oh-are-ay-en-eye." She looked to Zak to make sure she'd got the spelling right, and he gave her the briefest of nods by way of confirmation. "I want the information as soon as possible, so get on it personally.

"_As you command, My Lady,_" the woman's subdued voice replied. Alitha shut down the communications link and took another step towards Zak.

She was almost within arms' reach, and most certainly within the reach of his lightsaber should he choose to—

_Don't!_

It was the same voice as earlier, and now he knew why it sounded so familiar. It was the voice that had whispered like a ghost in his ear on board the _Medusa_ in the Yavin system the previous year.

He and Talesa Valara were in their cell, and Allina had had her eyes fixed upon the recording projected by the holo recorders of Anakin Skywalker slaughtering children in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant during the rise of the Empire. The voice had whispered something to him. "_Not my proudest moment," _it had said. "_Not _my_ proudest—_"

_Who are you_? Zak thought, hoping the voice would respond.

_Don't consider attacking her. It would be unwise. You're on her terms here, Zak. If you are to ambush her, you do it at a time and place that suits you, not her._

_But who are you?_ he insisted, frowning. The voice didn't return, and Alitha raised an eyebrow in response to his frown, unsure how to read it.

"I trust," she started, "_Mister_ Torani, that if you experienced similar circumstances, that you would fulfil the same expectation without pause."

Zak nodded clumsily, still half-focussed on trying to identify the strange, ethereal voice that had now haunted him twice. "If they presented an adequate obstacle to my goals, I wouldn't hesitate to remove them from the way," he said emotionlessly.

"Excellent!" Alitha said, clapping excitedly. "We understand each other. Another step closer brought her within arms' reach, and he sincerely hoped that she would exercise caution and keep her hands to herself. "Now, if I might make another inquiry …"

"You're about to ask me the identities of my targets," Zak said flatly, reinforcing his attempts to keep Jaina out of his thoughts. He was still planning how best to go about that story, and so far his options wouldn't have been approved of by the girls.

As he expected, Alitha nodded. "It would be in your best interests to divulge such information," she said.

"How would it be … in _my_ best interests?" Zak queried. He took a step back and started to circle around her like a prowling predator. "I'm quite capable of taking on a couple of Jedi brats on my own without the assistance … or interference … from the Imperium—either from you directly or your pet lieutenant-commander."

"Because you aren't the only one of us here hunting Jedi," she said. Zak braced himself for the inevitable that would follow as he circled behind her, widening the gap between them a little more. "I, too, am interested in a certain group of Jedi who eluded capture last year."

"The Yavin debacle?" Zak said. He guessed on his own that if she was to be interested in trusting him, that he would have to prove himself to her. He was going to have to show that he was connected within certain information networks and have something in return to offer her.

Predictably, she turned to face him, her features a tapestry of surprise and amusement. "You know of the incidents at Yavin Four, then?"

"Everyone who is anyone knows that the great and powerful Second Imperium annexed the Yavin system last year and that Skywalker and his precious Jedi were sent running from the system with their tails between their legs. Matter of fact, that's almost around the exact time I picked up my targets." Zak continued to circle, noting that it was she now that watched his every step. An interesting reversal. "It's also rumoured that the Imperium's flagship was present during the annexation, and that it opened fire on another Imperium cruiser that—surprisingly—did not fire back."

"The rumours are true," Alitha confirmed. "The ship in question was destroyed, and its crew are dead. They were foolish enough to allow themselves to be deceived into attacking the flagship in the first place, and as such their fates were sealed from the moment they opened fire."

Zak snorted. "Any true loyalist would have hailed the other ship to find out for sure what was going on, rather than taking matters into their own hands."

"I'm glad we agree with one another." Zak stopped and looked at her. "Now, I would greatly appreciate your own cooperation in this matter. There's a good chance that the Jedi you hunt are the Jedi I seek, and if that is the case then we can work on this together."

"As partners?" Zak said sarcastically. "You, who would take the mantle of Sith that I alone have proven worthy of, would work as _partners_?"

Alitha scowled, and her darkened yellow eyes flashed with building anger. "Do not underestimate my capabilities, _friend_, for I can dispatch you as easily as a Rancor dispatches a human, and at any time to my own convenience. Cooperation would be in both of our interests. I was hoping you would see that."

Zak thought about the proposal. If he allowed Alitha to help him, he would have to name Tash and Jaina. Since they were residing with him in the shared apartment, he didn't think it likely that the Imperium's goons would find them there.

If he was seen out looking for them, possibly with Alitha, then it would serve his goals to have them believe that they were elsewhere in the city. But in naming them as his intended "prey", he was putting them at risk by letting Alitha _know_ that they were there in the first place, or had been recently.

So far, they'd successfully eluded all Imperium entanglements on their trip around the galaxy since their exile from Yavin.

To be seen here and now would only serve to have the Imperials increasing their search efforts in that area, which meant a heavier Imperium presence on these neutral systems.

No one but Alitha would be happy with that. But then, he was already running the risk that she would do all that now anyway, knowing that there were Jedi in the area.

It wasn't a decision he could exactly take back now.

He cursed himself for having even brought it up on the landing pad yesterday. His earlier edginess was starting to prove to have been prophetic. If he wasn't careful with his deceptions and manipulations from here on out, then they all stood a _very_ good chance of being captured this close to their new home.

Instead, he drew an imager device from his inside jacket pocket, thumbed it to life, and tossed it to Alitha. An image flickered above the flat grill of the imager, rotating on an invisible axis. The girl's head was covered in plenty of blonde hair, and her blue eyes stared out ahead of her expressionlessly.

It pained him to have named his sister like this, but he knew that he could protect her.

"Tash Arranda," Alitha said. "Home planet: Alderaan. Twenty years of age, cryonics notwithstanding."

The image flickered again and Tash's face was replaced with Jaina's; her dark copper-brown hair sweeping like a veil behind her and her brown eyes staring out full of concern and worry.

"Jaina Solo, daughter of former smuggler Han Solo and former Chief of State of the New Republic, Leia Organa-Solo. Home planet: Coruscant. Also twenty years of age."

"That's them," Zak said with a pointed nod.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

When Zak returned to the apartment after a full day with Alitha, he was exhausted.

He unclipped Allina's lightsaber from his belt and tossed it onto the sofa. Then, he let his mental walls drop to a more passive defence and he released a long, relieved sigh as he slumped down onto the comforter and let himself sink into it. Having heard his entrance, Jaina soon came into the main area from the room they shared.

She shot him a quick look of sympathy before she dashed into the kitchen, poured a drink, and then seated herself comfortably in his lap.

"You shut me out," she said, not quite scolding. Zak took the drink from her and sipped from it greedily and sighed again. "Did something happen that you knew I wouldn't want to see?"

"What?" Zak said, alarmed at the tone of accusation in her voice. "No. Absolutely not. I just needed to concentrate on keeping her out of my head. Besides, remember that Mara and Talesa have both said to us that they might not be able to hear what we're saying but they know when we're using that link. I didn't want to take the chance that Alitha would notice it as well."

"Well," Jaina said, "that's a fair enough reason. How did the meeting with her majesty go?"

"Not good, I'm afraid," Zak admitted. He sipped from the drink before he continued. "It seems that she at least trusts me enough to have told me the reason that the Imperium is here. It's not to look for us."

"Do tell," Jaina said, shifting to a more comfortable position across his lap and looping an arm around his neck.

"War," Zak said. He sipped again from the purple liquid in his cup and then handed it back to her.

"What war?" Jaina asked. "We're not _at _war."

"Not yet," Zak replied grimly. "While the _Fury of Palpatine_ is busy overseeing the installation of an Imperium star base in the Yavin system, she's here on a more … delicate matter. She knows full well that this system in particular is known for its heavy trafficking in illegal and controlled weaponry, and she's interested in acquiring some."

"What the kriff for?" Jaina asked. She drained the remainder of the drink and then—cup emptied—she set it down on the table nearby. "The Imperium already has access to weapons and technologies and ships. Why would they need more?"

"Not the right ones, evidently," Zak mused. "She wants to get her hands on _Republic _-grade weaponry and ships and technologies. Anything that has a Republic registry or coding or ident."

"Oh, no," Jaina said, guessing the rest.

"Exactly. She's going to try and start a civil war within the Republic. Remember what your father said after we left Yavin last year: several senators dead and others, including your mother and the Chief of State, barely avoiding the attempts on their lives?"

Jaina nodded.

"Part of Alitha's plan. She as much as admitted that she wants to make it look like some of the representatives within the Senate are behind the deaths and attempts on the others. That's why only _some _of the senators were targeted, and not the whole lot.

"She wants it to look like those senators that have been ignored represent a number of star systems that wish to secede from the New Republic and either self-govern or form their own democratic government. Then, while the Republic is in the throes of a civil war trying to deal with these 'Separatists', Alitha and the Second Imperium moves in to mop up the remnants of both fleets, sacks Coruscant, and re-establishes a new order of the Sith before turning its attention on the Remnant and the other governments."

"She actually used the term 'Separatist'?" Jaina said. Zak nodded and Jaina chuckled. "Oh my stars; the woman is a fool! Doesn't she realise how different the new government is to the old one? In the old one, the Republic wanted to keep its hold on each and every system on the charter. As first Chief of State of the New Republic, Mon Mothma herself signed an accord with each and every member world that says that if that world chooses by majority or unanimous census to withdraw from the Republic, they have every legal right to do so and the Republic won't stop them.

"Ackbar and a few of the Clone War veterans suggested it as a means to avert another similar conflict from arising. Every world that's joined the Republic since has had a copy of that accord signed by whoever was Chief of State at the time, and the reneging on that agreement is punishable by a life sentence on Kessel."

"The plan has merit, Jaina," Zak admitted. She frowned, and he went on to explain. "They might have agreed to that, but what if one of those worlds then turns around and starts arming for war?

"It wasn't in the agreement that any seceding worlds would have remain on good terms with the Republic, and you know how governments on individual worlds change from time to time. All it would take is a tyrant to get their hands on the leadership of—say … Corellia, for instance. All they would have to do then is build up their own fleet, in secret if need be, and then set their sights on Coruscant. With that example in mind, you'd also have to factor in Centerpoint Station, as well, which would plunge the entire galaxy into war."

"I'll admit that it's a remote possibility, yes," Jaina agreed with a nod. "But considering all the freedoms that each world is awarded by the Republic, and trade options, and protections, why would any one of those worlds choose that?"

"But the point is that they _could_, Jaina," Zak insisted. "Alitha wants to sow the seeds of doubt that it _could_ happen. And because only a selection of the Senate was targeted, it makes that possibility look all the more likely to the public at large."

Jaina caught on to where he was headed quicker than he'd caught onto it when Alitha had been explaining it to him.

"Senator Jemsin has been pushing for martial law instigations for the past year." Zak nodded. "If such a motion succeeds, then the privacy of the Republic capital is at stake. Member worlds could start to secede en-masse to avoid martial law being enforced on their own worlds by the Senate, which would then weaken the Republic's forces."

"Exactly." Zak sighed again and looked at the chronometer near the vid screen to see that it was still a couple of hours before midnight, and he needed a decent night's sleep to recover from the day he'd just endured.

"Tash and I had dinner while you were out," Jaina said, reading his desires across their bond. "There's some in the preserver if you wanted something."

"I could eat," he said with a smile.

Several minutes later, they sat across from each other at the small dining table set against back wall of the kitchen area. Jaina had nothing in front of her, while Zak had a small salad mix of vegetable products he recognised as Alderaanian stock, and meat bits thrown in that had textures and tastes he couldn't quite compare to anything he'd ever had before.

They talked while he ate, slowly, about many things; the most recent of topics being the strange voice in Zak's head that Jaina had also heard.

"Do you have any idea who it was?" She asked him.

Zak stopped chewing for a second, risked a glance up at her, and then continued slowly, taking as much time as he dared to destroy it before swallowing.

In truth, he did have his own suspicions to whom the voice belonged, but he had no way of proving it. He couldn't understand how it could be who he suspected, as that person was long since dead. But at the same time, what little he had to go on so far pointed to no one else.

"Possibly," he said.

"Well?" Jaina pressed. Zak didn't respond, except to fork another serving of leafy salad into his mouth. "Do you feel like sharing?"

He pushed the plate towards her.

"That's not what I meant," she said, pushing it back. He grinned at her. "I meant did you want to tell me who you think it was that you heard?"

"There wouldn't be any point in me telling you," Zak said carefully, "because I could be wrong. And if I'm right, it would only make me look like I've lost my mind and that I can't continue with this mission."

"Not at all," Jaina said. "And you know full well that I would never think any less of you, regardless of what you may or may not have heard."

Those last four words rang in Zak's mind, triggering his self doubt and a feeling of foolishness for having thought what he thought. Again, he felt heavy reluctance to answer. But Jaina kept looking at him as if expecting one, and as if she knew that the longer she kept it up, the weaker his reluctance would become.

She soon found out how right she was.

"Have you ever heard of any Jedi being contacted by the dead?" Zak asked her, head down, but eyes up at her, assessing her reaction.

Jaina surprised him. "Yes," she responded. "Uncle Luke's spoken often on how Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda both continued to offer him advice even after they died. With the right training before death, certain Jedi—and even Sith like Exar Kun—have been known to commune with the living from the other side. Though, in Exar Kun's case, it was more of a possession, but the implication is still the same."

"And this is … common?" Zak asked her warily. He dropped his fork onto the plate and pushed the salad aside, now disinterested with it and more interested in what Jaina had to say.

"Not exactly. Sometimes these … spirits, for lack of a better term, manifest themselves to extraordinary Sith and Jedi who've trained themselves or have been trained by another to commune with the dead. Some other times, it's because the person the spirits speak to needs advice that only those spirits can bring, or some sort of insight into their own person."

"Have you ever spoken to one?"

"No," Jaina said, almost disappointed. "But one day I hope to be skilled enough in the Force that I'll be able to. The wealth of knowledge and wisdom that some of the most wizened Jedi, like Master Yoda, could bestow is … well it's beyond temptation or desire. It's a fundamental _need_. Not to explore those possibilities is just a waste."

She paused, and raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you saying you were hearing the voice of a dead Jedi or Sith?"

"Both," Zak said grimly. Jaina didn't comprehend it at first. "When you think of both Jedi and Sith, who is the first person that comes to mind that was both?"

"Grandfather Anakin," Jaina said at once, and then went silent as her eyes went wide. "No way!"

"I'm not certain. I only have suspicions," Zak said quickly.

"What makes you even think that, though?"

"Just something the voice said to me when Talesa and I were aboard Allina's Star Destroyer." Zak prodded at the table with his fingertips. "Remember how I said that, in order to make Allina see the truth, I showed her a series of recordings of some of Vader and Palpatine's most brutal acts?" Jaina nodded. "What I didn't tell you was that when we were watching the clip of Vader assaulting the Jedi Temple, the voice whispered to me 'Not my proudest moment.'"

Jaina fell silent again and fixed her gaze upon his eyes, noting how they were still in the process of darkening from the disgusting yellow that he was forced to adopt for his façade and the warm brown that he knew she much preferred.

He focussed on speeding the process until, through her eyes, he saw that they were normal once more. Her shoulders slumped just a little, as if his eyes had kept her a little on edge, but her gaze never wavered.

He stared back, trying to read her thoughts and missing them as they flew by one by one so fast he doubted even she was entirely aware of most of them.

"That's—"

"I suspect it wasn't the first time," Zak cut her off. Jaina's left eyebrow arched quizzically, and he went on. "I don't know. Just that when I first heard it then, the voice seemed so familiar to me, like I'd heard it before."

"Grandfather did at one point personally hunt you and your sister down during the _Project Starscream_ business," Jaina reminded him, and he shuddered. "Could it have been that?"

"No," Zak said. "When your grandfather was in that suit of his, his voice would have been muffled and … different. What I heard aboard the _Medusa_ was a voice that was unaltered, unfiltered, unchanged. And _that_ was what felt familiar." He prodded the side of his head with two fingers, frustration seeping into his mood. "And if I have heard it before," he continued, prodding again with almost every word, "it's locked away in here somewhere with the memories I haven't yet recalled."

Jaina slid out of her seat and slipped in beside him, gently taking hold of his hand and pulling it away from his head. She laced her fingers tightly around his and gave it a gentle squeeze. He turned his head to face her, and forced a smile for her benefit.

"There's still a lot I haven't recovered yet," he admitted solemnly. "Quite frankly, I'm fizzed off about that. It's been a year—actually it's been two years since I turned on everyone. I would have expected by now that those memories would have returned."

"Some have," she assured him, squeezing his hand again.

"Not enough, Jaina." She frowned and his expression softened a little as he banished some of the frustration away. "I know you can feel it. I'm sorry for that; I really am."

"There's nothing to be sorry for, as far as I'm concerned," she returned with a smile. "If it wasn't for the link we shared I would have had more trouble locating and subduing you back then. We wouldn't have escaped Brakiss' station so successfully without much _discussion_ on the plan. It's more than just having a private insight into your feelings Zak; it's an insight into your thoughts."

"Yeah, I'm sorry for that too," he said, looking away.

She reached across and touched her hand to his cheek, and he turned back to face her again. "Don't be," she said with a smile.

And then she kissed him. "Happy birthday, Zak."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

_Jacen Solo swung wide and his lightsaber impacted hard with a bright flash and a brilliance of sparks as I swung my own lightsaber into place to block him._

_ I snarled, angry, and flung my hand out at him. Jacen flew backwards through the air and away from me, his lightsaber free from his grasp and rolling away from him, deactivated._

_ Warning flashed across my mind, the usual sense of imminent danger, and I snapped my weapon's second blade to life and angled it up behind me to block a surprise swipe from another lightsaber. When I swung around to face the attacker, I almost did a double-take._

_ It was Anakin Solo._

_ I cursed myself, almost aloud, for not having sensed the younger Solo's approach sooner. I'd known that Jacen had followed his sister up from the hangars. I'd sensed him laying in wait, hiding behind the stone risers that the chairs were bolted into. That had been the main reason I'd kissed Jaina._

_ Well, OK, maybe that was a tiny lie._

_ The main reason was because I knew I wanted to. I'd felt such an overwhelming desire to press my lips against hers and savour the taste and feel of her. I'd been expecting so much from that kiss, and I hadn't exactly been disappointed._

_ But a smaller part of the reasoning behind it had been to draw Jacen out of hiding. In that respect, I _was_ disappointed. He'd been in shock, yes, and was alarmed that I would have the nerve to try such a thing with him watching. But with him masking his presence in the Force, he was probably unaware that I could feel him there._

_ So when the kiss failed to provoke him into revealing himself, I'd done the next best thing; if kindness wouldn't work, brutality would._

_ Needless to say, that _had_ actually worked. Jacen had been foolish enough to charge out from his hiding place bellowing like an enraged wampa and swinging his lightsaber straight at my head._

_ But for all of my concentration, it was Anakin that had surprised me. I hadn't sensed him coming at all, and I considered it more than likely that the youngest of the Solos hadn't actually arrived until I was too fully engrossed in my duel with his older siblings to pay attention to other possible sources of threat and danger. It was the most likely scenario._

_ If that was so, Anakin Solo had just unwittingly made a strong case for becoming my Sith apprentice._

_ The young Solo charged at me, and I sidestepped him with a low swipe of my lightsaber to cleave off the youngster's legs. Anakin swung his own lightsaber low and behind as he passed me, blocking the intended blow._

_ He continued to run by me, and then stopped himself just short of his older brother and spun on his heel, lightsaber raised high and ready to strike. He looked only a little menacing in such a position, and I smiled in spite of myself._

_ Jaina and Jacen were both pushing themselves to their feet again now—Jacen behind his brother, Jaina against the lower risers on the east side of the chamber. Jacen reached for his lightsaber with the Force and it responded without resistance. I'd let him have that. Then he tossed something over to Jaina and I had a second to register the ignition of the violet glow of her own lightsaber before all three of them jumped forward at me from their positions._

_ I snarled again and spun the lightsaber tightly around my fingers, blurring both blades in an impenetrable defence._

_ A blue-white blade—Anakin's—rose against the wall he spun around himself, and it bounced off, only to be replaced by the green, and then the violet of Jacen and Jaina respectively._

_ I stopped, ducked under the would-be-fatal high slash from Jacen's lightsaber, and instantly deactivated both blades of my lightsaber before dropping into a roll and slamming through Jacen's knees. He toppled, off balance, over the top of me and toward his twin._

_ Both of them deactivated their lightsabers and grabbed at each other to stop the fall. Instead, Jacen crashed into her and they both fell, leaving Anakin the only one of them left standing against me._

_ While the twins were occupied with righting themselves to get back into the fight, I reactivated my lightsaber. I kicked out at Anakin, and followed through with a violent stab of one of my weapon's blades. Anakin dodged around the kick and then swiped downwards to bat my lightsaber away from his chest. Instead, the tip speared the stone between the younger's feet._

_ Frowning, he yanked the blade out of the stone and stepped back, watching as Anakin also took a step back._

_ "So much more skill than I would have expected from an insect," I hissed, using the Force to force both sets of vocal chords to work at once and distort my voice in such a way that made me sound far more sinister. "You would be an excellent choice to become my apprentice," I added with a chuckle._

_ "NO!" Jacen and Jaina both screamed from behind me._

_ They were up now, and I dragged my lightsaber on instinct through the air and around behind me to intercept the twin blows from the twin Solos. Jaina's lightsaber impacted first and I allowed the power behind her strike drive that blade down so that the other resultantly see-sawed upward to swat Jacen's out of the way._

_ "Stay away from him, you _animal_!" Jaina spat in my face._

_ I chuckled again, and rotated the handle in my palm before stepping back and slashing around behind me to swat Anakin's encroaching blade away from my back. Then, after following through with a kick to the boy's side, I turned back to the twins to see that they were now manoeuvring to flank me._

_ Jacen came at me first. I drove at him hard and fast with both blades of my lightsaber. He lost a few meters of ground before he was able to switch stances and styles to hold it, and by then, I noticed that Jaina was now behind me and advancing._

_ Her blade buzzed by my ear so close I felt the burn of it, and I reacted instantly._

_ After swatting Jacen's lightsaber to the side so that it slid deep into the stone-ferrocrete wall, I spun around to face Jaina. My lightsaber blurred as the blades arced through the cool air towards her, and flashed as they impacted upon her blades and bounced away._

_ I advanced, pushing her further back and following through with strike after strike after strike. She dropped down to the lower floor and I followed without hesitating._

_ But it wasn't lost on me that both of the Solo boys were behind me now, and that Jacen had yanked his lightsaber out of the wall and was advancing on me yet again. When I felt that the boys were close enough to be threatening, I spun my lightsaber a full three hundred and sixty degrees around my body to block almost-simultaneous strikes from all three of the Solos. Then I bent at the knees and sprung high into the air and over the heads of the Solo boys to land back on the dais._

_ "Too slow," I said in mocking tones as Jacen and Anakin turned to face me._

_ All three of them frowned, and sprung into the air as one._

_ I performed a flawless hand-flip that put me a couple of meters further distant as they landed in front of me and raised their lightsabers to come at me again._

_ "Really," I started, cocking my head to the side in mock-thought. "There's no reason for this conflict to continue. All one of you has to do is swear fealty to me and the other two can graciously accept death."_

_ "Never going to happen," Jacen said evenly, though his face gave away the storm brewing beneath the surface._

_ Jacen and Anakin came at me first from the left, and I swung fast again and again, keeping up my pace and pushing for more speed to fend them off as Jaina came in from the right._

_ I could feel the raw power behind each of Jacen's strikes, and the hesitation behind both Jaina's and Anakin's. I was sure that all three of them could feel the power I imbued into each of my own swings, batting them away like they were nothing more than cheap, dusty, childhood toys whose owner was bored by them._

_ I laughed at their meagre attempts to break through my defences again and again, each of them looking me dead in the eye every time my blade touched theirs._

_ I didn't need the Force to tell me that all three of them felt varying degrees of fear. But they were "following orders."_

_ Not one of them was willing to give up on the idea that I could be "saved" from what they all thought to be some kind of—did they think it was madness? I couldn't understand why they were trying to stop me from being myself. I was happy to be the way I was, and I was determined that any attempt they made to sway me would fail._

_ After all, even their precious uncle, Luke Skywalker, Grand Master of the Jedi Order, had lost to me. I wanted so badly to have killed the aging Jedi. I'd done so much damage to him, had relished at the sound of breaking ribs and fracturing fingers. But just as I'd been about to deal him the finishing blow, his interfering wife and the Zabrak Master stepped in to stop me._

_ I was still seething over that._

_ But the thought that maybe killing all three of the Solos would draw Skywalker back to me for another confrontation … was a sweet one. After all, the Jedi was still on his feet despite what I'd done to him and despite the complete lack of bacta access the Jedi had, trapped in the underground hangar of the Praxeum._

_ He really was asking for another fight, and I felt obliged to give it to him._

_ I released the hold I had on my lightsaber entirely for no more than a split second and flung both of my hands out, flinging all three Solo pests away from me with invisible waves of the Force._

_ I gripped the comforting metal of the lightsaber again just as they hit the stone floor, far enough from each other that their own lightsabers did no damage to any of them—_Stang!

_ As they scrambled to get back to their feet to come at me again, I placed the tip of the left-side blade of my lightsaber against the ferrocrete floor._

_ I knew that the stone and ferrocrete reinforce wouldn't hold up to the searing heat of the lightsaber's plasma. But, with luck, they would offer sufficient resistance to hold me up for a second or two. And that was all that I needed it to do._

_ When the twins reached me, I kicked up from the ground and, using my upright lightsaber as a support pole, slammed both feet hard into their chests, once more tossing them far from me. I sprung off their chests into a backwards somersault, dragging my lightsaber's blade out of the floor, and landed a few meters away in a spin that sent my lightsaber's blade slamming hard against the blue of Anakin's._

_ The recoil sent the boy into an involuntary spin, and I kicked out at him when his back was facing me._

* * *

Zak woke up with a start, gasping for air and pushing himself up to a seated position upon the bed.

The bedroom was thrown into darkness, and as there weren't any windows he couldn't tell by light presence alone if it was still night or if dawn had long since broken. For all he knew, he could have been asleep for an hour.

The cooled air from the room's environmental vent bit hard against his bare chest and arms, and he allowed himself the luxury of slumping backwards and drawing the blankets over him again.

Jaina's arm slid back across his chest in a semi-awake daze. She opened her eyes and looked at him questioningly. "What's wrong?" she asked quietly.

"Nothing," Zak said, slipping his arm back under her shoulders and allowing her to snuggle closer to him. "Just a bad dream, that's all. You can go back to sleep."

"I think we've had enough," Jaina said with a smile. Zak smiled too and started to trace his fingertips gently up and down the centre of her back. "Do you want to talk about it at all? It might help."

"I'll be fine, Jaina," Zak insisted. He kissed her forehead and sighed. "Just the same memory that continues to gnaw away at my sanity."

"The Grand Chamber … with Jacen and Ani?"

"Except you were there this time," Zak replied with another kiss. "I was fighting all three of you off."

"You seem to remember a little more and more every time you recall it," Jaina said softly, stroking his chest and looking up at him. "You'll get it all eventually."

"Not quickly enough." Zak sighed. "It's like this particular memory is trying its best to hide from me. It's like it's so bad that it doesn't _want_ to be found."

Jaina hesitated. "That's probably it. But you'll get there."

"I hope so," he said grimly, continuing to stroke her back lightly.

He looked into Jaina's eyes and smiled. "No regrets," he said. He knew that she would understand what he was talking about.

She did, and she smiled back at him. "No regrets," she repeated. She snuggled closer and the two of them lay there together in silence for a few moments, trading gentle kisses and feather-light strokes. "I do have something to add though," she said finally, biting her lip.

"I thought as much. As it happens, so do I."

"You go first," Jaina said uncertainly.

"You," Zak replied with a smile.

Jaina hesitated, a light frown playing over her features for just a second. "Together, then." Zak nodded, still smiling. "I love you."

"I'm hungry," Zak said at the same time, still grinning slyly.

Jaina thumped him with an indignant look blazing in her eyes and Zak chuckled and drew her atop him, lightly probing at her sides in an attempt to tickle her. "I was kidding," he said with a final chuckle and a smile. "I love you too, Jaina."

Her expression lightened then and she leaned down to kiss him full on the lips. He responded in kind and circled his arms around her waist to pull her tighter to him.

Things were starting to heat up between them once more when the unexpected shattered the idea.

"ZAK KALF ARRANDA!" Tash's voice shrieked from the apartment's front door. He heard it slam and heavy footsteps stomped their way across the apartment towards them. He and Jaina both turned to the door to their room just as it was flung open.

Tash was standing there, her face contorted and red with rage, her clothes were crinkled and sweaty and dusty, and her hands balled into tight fists at her sides, exposing just how angry she was.

"Oh," she said, her eyes shooting wide. The colour instantly drained from her features and, just as quickly, she backed out of the doorway and shut the door behind her.

Zak and Jaina looked at each other and he could tell that she was restraining the urge to burst out into fits of laughter very much the same as he was. Quickly, he planted a gentle kiss on her lips and slipped out from underneath her, planting his feet on the floor beside the bed and pushing himself out of it.

He donned his last pair of slacks, after picking them up from the floor, and turned around.

"She can wait, you know," Jaina said seductively, laying down on her stomach and propping her head up with her hand.

Zak chuckled. "Probably can, but I'm curious to find out what I've done wrong." He leaned down and kissed her again, longer and more passionately, and then straightened. "You can get back to sleep if you want," he added with a smile.

She sighed. "Not a chance," she said.

He turned and left the room, closing the door behind him—

—and ran face-first into a vicious slap from his sister.

His face stinging, he ducked under her next swing and darted across the cold floor behind her. When he got up, he turned around to see that she was already advancing on him, and he took a couple of steps backwards down the hall and into the living space, mindful of the furniture that might hinder his escape.

"Hey! Hands off!_"_ he heard Jaina call from the bedroom.

"What was _that_ for?" he demanded at the same time.

"Why didn't you tell me—" She cut herself off and frowned. "How the _hell_ are you Allina's father?" she screeched.

Zak cringed, and allowed himself to bump backwards into the comforter and collapse into it as his sister rounded on him, her hands on her hips and her eyes shooting red-hot lasers straight at him.

"I'm not," he said simply, looking down.

"DNA doesn't lie, _little_ brother!" she hissed.

"DNA?" Zak asked, looking up again. All thought of his recent passion for Jaina suddenly dropped away as curiosity surfaced. "What DNA? I haven't given them a sample of my blood yet."

Tash's nostrils flared and she advanced another step, looming over him and looking the most hostile he could ever remember seeing her.

"Geesev tested mine!" she snapped. "While totally out-of-character for a droid, he seemed impatient to get the results out of the way and with you down here, busy, he used the sample I gave in my last medical check-up to run the comparison himself and gave me the results. Can you even imagine how shocked I was to find out that my little brother is a father? And, of course, I couldn't ask Allina about it because she suffered a seizure while I was away and is now unconscious."

"She's not my daughter," Zak said defiantly. Then he registered what she had said about Allina and blanched. "Allina had a seizure?" he asked.

"_DNA does not lie!_" Tash said dangerously. She raised a hand to strike again and he held both of his up defensively, cringing back into the couch for support.

"Wait!" Zak said. "I can explain."

She halted the swing and glared down at him. "You had better have a _damned_ good excuse, or I _will_ hurt you!"

Zak snorted and nodded to the sofa lounge pointedly. Tash took the hint and sat down on its edge, clasping her hands together tightly in her lap. Her eyes were narrowed as she stared at him, as if she'd already decided that no matter what he told her, she was still going to hit him. He knew that even the truth wouldn't stop her from striking him again, as he had known all these years that she would _not_ approve.

He sensed Jaina stir in the bedroom, but she remained in bed, listening to what he was about to say.

She, of course, already knew the full story, as did her brother Jacen and their mentors Luke and Mara-Jade. Thus far, they were the few that knew all the facts—Allina aside. He'd been stalling from talking to Tash about it because he knew how heavily she would disapprove of it.

And while he technically didn't need her permission to live his life his own way, he knew that since the loss of Alderaan and everything they had once known—eventually extending to the loss of their shape shifter Uncle Hoole—that she was _extremely_ fanatical about his protection. It was as if Hoole's death had forced her to adopt his place and become Zak's guardian, not that he now needed it.

"Speak," she commanded.

He frowned at the tone, but nonetheless obeyed her. "I shouldn't really need to detail how this all started. You know about how we met Alitha—back on Sullust. And I know you know that I was … attracted to her."

"Understatement," Tash muttered, and Zak felt Jaina tense. It was the first indication of the extent of his past feelings for the Imperium's leader that she had heard. While he felt nothing for her now, not even a spark, the way he felt for Jaina was far, _far_ stronger than what he had ever felt for Alitha.

"Continue," Tash said with a nod.

"The night before Uncle Hoole was killed, I went to see her." Tash stiffened at this. He'd specifically waited until Tash had gone to sleep before sneaking out to go see Alitha.

He let his sister glean that from his mind, and she frowned when she did.

"She was convinced that she could teach us the ways of the Force in much the same manner as we had hoped Master Yoda would," Zak started. "So I went over for some private tutoring. Just basic stuff; nothing too complex or straining. Anyway, I was just starting to get somewhere and she decided to celebrate with a few drinks."

"Drinks?"

"Alcohol," Zak said meekly. The frown didn't leave Tash's face, and she said nothing, but he could feel the revulsion and disapproval rolling off her in waves, even without having to use the Force to sense it. "First time, I swear. And I haven't touched it since."

"Liar," Tash breathed. "Your birthday a couple of years ago, back on GemDiver. Lando brought you a Corellian Quaker. Don't deny it."

"OK," Zak said, rolling his eyes. "_Once!_ Big deal."

Jaina giggled from the bedroom and Tash shot a nasty look at the hallway. The laughter stopped abruptly and Zak forced himself not to smile.

"As I was saying," Zak continued, snaring his sister's attention again. "Things after that became a bit of a blur, but I woke up in such a position that didn't leave any doubt about what had happened."

"You slept with Alitha," Tash guessed.

"Well, I suppose there was sleeping involved at some point," Zak said, being the smartass. His sister wasn't impressed, and, it seemed, neither was Jaina. "OK, so …" he started uncomfortably. "You know the story after that too, so I won't go into that either. But evidently, at some point over the course of that night, she was able to take a DNA sample from me. Which meant that even then, she'd had the foresight to know what was going to happen to us and had already made plans for Allina.

"I don't know if anyone told you, but Allina was _grown_, Tash. In a tank, or tube, or whatever. She wasn't conceived naturally. Alitha used my DNA, mixed with her own DNA, to create Allina as another attempt to turn me. Though, obviously, that plan backfired and she lost Allina altogether," he added with a nervous chuckle.

All of his foresight into Tash's reaction didn't disappoint him. She was angry. Hell, she was _furious_. Not just that he'd done the things he'd done—notably drinking while underage and sleeping with an older woman _while_ drinking—but because he hadn't thought to be open about it and tell her.

He didn't let her glean from his mind that Jaina and others knew the full story, or he was quite sure she'd jump to her feet and slap him … again.

"You—" She cut herself off and glanced at the hallway, where Jaina was now standing; a white sheet wrapped tightly around her to cover up. "Did you know about this?" she shot at Jaina.

_No?_ Jaina asked him.

While Tash's gaze was fixed on Jaina, Zak responded with the slightest shake of his head that he could manage. Jaina shook her head as well, but so that Tash could read it.

Tash sighed, and then turned to face her brother again as Jaina shuffled across the cold floor and planted herself in his lap comfortably. Zak wrapped his arms around Jaina, but continued to look at his sister, sensing that she wasn't yet finished. Jaina kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"What were you _thinking_, Zak?" Tash scolded him. He shrugged. "I mean, she was nice to us yes so I can see why you were so attracted to her at the time. But she was nearly seven years older than you! You couldn't keep your pants on?"

"I would defend it with a reminder that I was _drunk_," Zak said defensively, "but it was my choice to accept the drinks in the first place, so by extension I know that I'm partly to blame."

"And she's not any less to blame by offering them to you, knowing you were underage," Jaina offered, tracing spirals on his bare chest with her finger.

"Of course she's to blame," Tash said irritably. "_She_ should have known better. But, Zak—"

Zak held up a hand to stop her. "I've already accepted responsibility," he said. "And while it was an ill-advised thing to do at the time, look what's come out of it: a wonderful, impressionable young girl who needs _our_ guidance as much as Luke's, as well as our help to save her life." He paused, restrained a smile.

_Oh, don't do it,_ Jaina warned him, sensing his thoughts.

"Besides," Zak said anyway, "that now makes you an aunt. How does that make you feel, _Aunt_ Tasha?" He smiled at her cheekily and she cringed back into the seat, exactly the response he'd been expecting.

"Oh please," Tash started, "don't call me that. I'm too young to be an aunt. And you …" She frowned. "You're not really her father, apparently."

"Closest thing she has to one," Zak pointed out with a shrug. "Even though I've asked her not to call me "Dad", I can't stop her from thinking of me as her father."

The frown disappeared and she sat there quietly for a few moments, silently appraising both he and Jaina sitting nearby. Zak saw all of the thoughts running through her mind as she thought them, without intentionally looking.

"What happened to her," Zak asked. He made sure not to sound too concerned, lest he annoy Jaina, who he sensed was still on the fence about the younger girl's loyalties. "You said she had a seizure?"

"I did," Tash mused. "It happened when Geesev was talking to me about the results. The _Glory_'s medical unit was able to take care of her needs at the time, and told us when we joined it moments later. Apparently, one of her lungs stopped working hours earlier, which no one had told me about. The greatly reduced breathing capacity reduced the oxygen reaching her brain and she had an episode."

"Will she be OK?" Jaina asked, and once more, Zak was grateful that she could at least sound partway sincere.

"Geesev is optimistic," Tash said grimly. "But he did say that there's a risk that if she has many more episodes like that she could suffer permanent brain damage even this treatment you're looking for won't be able to reverse."

The news hit Zak to the core, and he found himself surprised at the paternal concern he was showing for a girl he hardly knew. The three of them sat in silence for a moment, and Zak spent that moment trying to convince himself wholly that he would succeed and that she would be saved.

_She has to, love_, Jaina thought to him. _If for no other reason than to spite the woman that did this to her, she _has_ to live. Have faith in that_. She stroked his cheek gently and he looked at her.

"So," Tash started uneasily, "this thing here …" She nodded pointedly at Zak and Jaina. "Do I want to know how long it's been going on?"

"Not sure that's any of your business," Jaina said with feigned indignity. She and Tash exchanged knowing smiles and the latter nodded, standing up.

"Well," she said. "You have my approval."

"Like I need it," Zak muttered. Tash grinned and walked past him to the apartment door. "Hey!" he called to her. She turned back to face them. "You just got here. Where are you going?"

"For a walk," she said with a shrug. "Thought I'd go and check out the markets and see if there's anything worth spending credits on. Leaves you two a bit of privacy as well," she added with a shrug.

"I suppose," Zak said. "Though, that last point is moot seen as though I need to be seen out and about today." Jaina prodded him in the side and he shot her a deeply apologetic look before turning to look over his shoulder at Tash. "Be careful, will you? Alitha will be out today meeting with the officials again. Don't let yourself be seen."

"A little faith, please!" she scoffed. Tash turned around again and opened the door. "Happy birthday, little brother," she called over her shoulder as she stepped over the threshold and shut the door behind her.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

_**SICK BAY, OBSERVATION WARD; NEW REPUBLIC STAR DESTROYER:**_** CORELLIAN GLORY**

Jacen had wanted to return to Navii Lya Prime with Tash when she headed back with the _Silent Hunter_. While he knew that Zak wanted him to keep an eye on Allina's degeneration for him, and to keep her preoccupied with thoughts other than that of her impending death, he wanted so badly to be in the thick of things.

Also, he had a feeling he just could not shake that something bad was about to happen. He knew that the three of them down there would be able to handle any problem thrown at them, but it didn't help that he was stuck here unable to watch their backs.

His aunt and uncle attempted to cheer him up at times, and he found himself volunteering for assignment to combat patrol with the _Corellian Glory_'s fighter pilots, and occasionally Matilda Perisca from Striker Squadron, to keep his own mind occupied.

Allina was unconscious for the moment, and had been since before Tash had returned to the surface.

He worried for Allina, even if she herself didn't. Even though no one really knew the girl all that well, he could sense that Zak had become quite attached to her. Not in the same sense that he was attached to Jaina, but more in the way a father might to his child. Though he was only her father by genetics, not by upbringing, the connection was still there. Jacen only hoped that they had time to explore it.

And then there was Jacen's sister's own disdain for Allina.

So far, the strange girl hadn't once tried to escape them, and she'd not once tried to lie to any of them—unless her claims of self-worthlessness could be considered lies. She'd occupied her time building a new lightsaber to replace the one she had lost at Yavin during the duel with her own "mother", Alitha, and then handed it promptly to Luke with an insistent request that he keep it locked away for her never to see again.

Jacen had watched her build it, had been truly _fascinated_ at the process. Of course, he'd checked in with Tash's progress occasionally when she'd been building her own lightsaber, and he'd watched Tenel Ka rip apart her lightsaber and rebuild it from scratch only weeks after he'd unintentionally severed her arm during a friendly spar. He'd found each of those fascinating as well. But he found watching Allina to be fascinating on another level entirely.

The speed with which she worked on the project was uncanny. Luke and Jacen had provided her with all the parts that she could ever need, having disassembled a number of the spare lightsabers stored in the _Recluse_'s weapons locker. She had all the tools she would need, and worked quietly in the maintenance bay while Jacen sat across from her watching, and the marines stood quietly at the door whispering non-related conversations amongst themselves.

It had taken only a week for her to finish the device, which was uncanny. Usually it took a few weeks, or even months, for such a process. Some of that time, however, was planning and designing the lightsaber, while some was devoted to actually acquiring everything that she needed to make it.

For people like Zak, Luke and Jaina, days alone were spent in front of an industrial-strength metal forge, using the Force to craft the synth crystals they needed to focus the weapon's power into the deadly blade. While they didn't have a forge on board, an A-wing's afterburners had proven to be just as effective.

Allina had handed it first to Jacen when she'd eventually finished. She'd polished and buffed it all, making it look like brand new parts put together into a brand new device. Jacen sensed that she wanted to put her final personal touch on it, but at the time she'd become very unfocussed and distracted by something that Jacen couldn't guess.

In retrospect, he thought that it might have been her condition's earliest symptoms, and that she'd held herself strong and together in order to keep others from worrying.

He knew that the first reported warning was much later when she and Zak had been sparring and Allina had ended up in the medical wing with an unexplained tear to her stomach lining. Even then, the girl kept the reason behind the tear to herself and insisted to everyone around her that it was likely due to the strain of the duel with Zak.

He supposed that was a lie. But it wasn't harmful to anyone but herself, which was why it barely counted. She was fully aware at the time that if she'd told someone, they would have started then and there to look for a cure to what was wrong with her. Geesev and his counterpart from the _Glory_ might even have devised a method on their own without the need for a risky mission to infiltrate an Imperium cruiser.

He was in the medical bay with Geesev now, poring over the results of the latest bio scans of Allina's condition without a word spoken between them.

Along with Allina's left lung, her kidneys had shut down, and additional tears were forming in muscle tissue across her entire body. Calcium levels in her skeletal structure were dropping fast, making her bones no stronger than a stylus. Her skin had grown deathly pale, though she was still alive, and blue vein-pattern lines had started to creep across her cheeks and hands.

He scrolled through some of the data in front of him and then back up to crosscheck it with other information, frowning.

Suddenly, the _Corellian Glory_'s GH-7 drifted over to them and waited patiently for either Geesev or Jacen to acknowledge its presence.

"Yes?" Jacen said, tapping his chin thoughtfully and wishing that Matilda was with him explaining what half of the medical nonsense in front of him actually meant.

"I have finished," the unit said. Jacen turned around now, but only so far as to look at Geesev, not the other unit.

"Finished what?" he asked them both.

"Master Solo," Geesev started, tilting his head. "Would you please contact Mistress Perisca and ask her to report here as soon as she is able. We will explain after you have done so."

Jacen did as was asked of him, and then clicked off his communicator and turned back to the two droids, who hovered there conversing in machine binary, which even the Force could not aid him in translating.

"Well?" he persisted.

"Ever since Master Arranda and company departed for the planet, we have been working with Mistress Perisca in an effort to come up with a way to solve this problem ourselves," Geesev started, gesturing with his arms. "We had—Mistress Perisca had a faint hope that we could solve this problem ourselves, and that there would be no requirement for Master Arranda to continue his most dangerous task of trying to infiltrate any of the Imperium's ships to steal information. Pragmatically, my counterpart and I hoped to discover a way to further slow the effects of Miss Palpatine's deterioration in order to provide more time for Master Arranda to complete his task."

"And what have you found?" Jacen asked curiously.

"We think we have found a way to do just that," the _Glory_'s unit replied, its hands clasped together in front of itself. "We can slow the deterioration down so much as to extend her life by another year."

"Extend her pain and discomfort for that long, you mean?" Jacen said darkly. With how far along she was already, he wasn't sure that another year would be as much a reward for her as it would be a punishment. "With her current state, what exactly would that serve to accomplish?"

"Because …" a voice said behind him. He didn't turn, but he did wait as Matilda swiftly crossed the room to them, breathing heavily as if she'd run the length of the ship to get to them as quickly as possible. She started anew. "We, or rather they, were able to discover this method on their own, without any of the Imperium's notes."

"Only because of sequencing and analysis provided by Mistress Perisca," the _Glory_'s medical unit said.

Jacen frowned. He hoped that he wasn't about to have to deal with the two GH-7s and Matilda trying to throw credit at each other. He wasn't particularly in the mood for such a diversion with what he'd already heard.

Looking at Matilda, he knew that such a thing wouldn't happen. She might have preferred that they take some of the credit, but she wasn't prepared to bore Jacen with insisting on it.

"I suspect, but cannot confirm until Zak's return, that the method that _we_"—she strongly emphasised the word with a glance to Geesev and his counterpart—"were able to come up with is completely different to the one that Allina's mother used. In fact, it doesn't even work in the same way. The Imperial's method reverses all of the damage, fixes all the gaps, and restarts the cycle of deterioration. Ours merely slows down the progress of it, bolsters whatever's left of the immune system in an attempt to fight it off."

"How does that help her?" Jacen asked.

"Mistress Perisca is under the quite logical assumption that by combining the two methods, we can give Miss Palpatine a singular injective cure that would cease the cycle of deterioration and permanently stabilise her genetic structure."

"We can present a real cure rather than a stopgap." Matilda beamed and Jacen put a hand on her shoulder gently. "Of course, if we continue working there's always the chance we can solve the problem ourselves, but it would take us a lot longer to do that than it would for Zak to finish his mission on the planet, so I'm not sure if we should proceed with it or not."

She looked genuinely uncertain, and Jacen knew that the two machines she was assisting with Allina's condition would only continue to work on a solution if Jacen or Luke told them to. Even though Geesev had been more or less humanised by Jaina years ago, he was still fundamentally a machine and therefore subject to orders.

Jacen considered the options presented before him.

On the one hand, what Matilda was proposing was risky. It wasn't exactly a standard medical procedure. In fact, Jacen doubted that he would have found any kind of reference to it in any medical textbooks. And the possibility of it being a permanent solution for Allina hinged on the success of Zak's mission, which hinged on his success at fooling Alitha into believing that he was a darksider eager to take advantage of whatever knowledge she could provide him.

On the other hand, if it succeeded …

Luke had said more than once that Alitha had unwittingly created a powerful enemy. In building Allina from her own and Zak's DNA, she'd given Allina the potential to be extremely powerful in the Force. And in manipulating her and lying to her the way she had for over a year, Alitha had snapped any strings of loyalty that Allina felt for her.

Jacen wasn't fooled by Allina's outward calm and appearance of acceptance of the epic betrayal. He knew without having to resort to the Force to sense it that Allina wanted vengeance for that injustice.

In her place, he couldn't say he wouldn't feel the same.

"I'll talk to Uncle Luke about it, but I think it's safe to say that he'd agree with me in that you can proceed," Jacen said with a forced smile that cheered Matilda up a little. "Zak can continue with his assignment in the meantime. We can improve the chances of stabilising a cure for her if we continue up here independently and secure what information the Imperium has. There's always the chance that they'll have just that one equation that will stunt the progress you three will be making up here, or vice versa."

"Always, that chance exists," Geesev said with a blink and a nod. The other unit looked at its counterpart and then back at Jacen.

"Continue your work. I will go and talk to Uncle Luke and confirm that he agrees with my decision on this."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

_**IMPERIUM VICTORY DESTROYER:**_** NIGHT SKY**_**; YAMA NTO SPACEPORT, NAVII LYA PRIME**_

"I've been following them only a few short months," Zak said, looking across the table at Alitha and shovelling more meat into his mouth to chew.

He was once again on board the _Night Sky_, on a "lunch date" with Alitha while talking about his Jedi prey.

Since he and Jaina had made love, he'd found it increasingly difficult to think of much else, and it was becoming more and more difficult each hour to maintain the barriers he'd erected to keep Alitha out, as well as the cosmetic effect he'd applied to make him look older and more like someone that extensively used the dark side of the Force.

Alitha, it seemed, was unaware of the strain he was under. Already, her first officer had confirmed the _possibility_ that he was who he said he was.

The plan to keep him more or less ambiguous meant that he hadn't bothered creating false records in Republic databases on himself, but had inserted enough information on "rogue attacks on peaceful worlds" to cast a little doubt. They'd talked about some of that already, but Zak had sensed the whole way through that interrogation that Alitha was only using that conversation as a barrier-breaker so that she could really get to the topic that interested her: his "pursuit" of Tash and Jaina.

He chewed rapidly, and then swallowed, sighing contentedly. "I can't remember the last time I had nerf steaks," he said with a smile.

"Life must have been rough on the go," Alitha said, maintaining her cool demeanour though the food in front of her lay more or less untouched. Some of it had been pushed around her plate to make it look like she'd eaten, but Zak noticed that the quantity hadn't dwindled any.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Zak said, shovelling more steak down his gullet. He took a long gulp from the cup beside his plate and set it back down.

If he was honest with himself, nerf steak wasn't his favourite meat. He much preferred the more succulent meat of grazers, which he understood hadn't suffered extinction with the destruction of Alderaan. But Alitha knew that about him, so once more it was something he was forced to endure.

"Mostly, I've been living off a supply of military rations I stole from the abandoned Imperial outposts on Thyferra and Fondor. All vacuum-sealed and well preserved, even though the outpost itself was run down and looked like it had been abandoned for years."

He ran his tongue along his teeth and found that a stringy piece of steak had gotten stuck.

He reached up and pried it loose with a fingernail, then swallowed it. "Horrible," Alitha said, though her placid expression never changed.

Zak nodded and set about cutting another chunk out of his steak. "As I was saying …" he continued, spearing the chunk along with a slice of vegetable and popping them into his mouth for quick destruction and swallowing. He sighed again and continued. "I came across the girls on … Bestine I think it was? Yeah, it was definitely Bestine.

"I didn't see any other ships there though, so I don't know if they were scouting ahead of their main group or if they'd separated for some other reason. They had a flashy looking ship. Shot mine all to hell and then chased me down to the sub-surface to finish the job.

"Naturally, they realised the folly of that idea. Their ship might be flashy, but sabotage works well on any kind of vessel. It was such a shame, though. I would have liked to keep it for myself, but I figured that if they made it back to their main group and I was ever spotted in their ship, I'd be shot down on site."

"Did you confront them?" Alitha asked curiously.

"Briefly," Zak said thoughtfully. Jaina was once again with him.

Before he'd left, he'd told her the extent of his plan, and the amount that he had thus far divulged to Alitha. She hadn't reacted as surprised and frantic as he'd thought, and had stated that it in fact solidified his position with Alitha. She even offered a few suggestions on directions to take that information, some of which Zak had actually considered.

But right now, while he was here talking to Alitha, she was ever-present in his mind while with Tash in the city

"They tried to stop me from stealing a ship and taking off. It never occurred to me that there might actually be a reason they were so hesitant in the encounter to do any harm to me. I just thought that it was typical Jedi arrogance that they thought the loss of life would be unnecessary if I proved to be 'redeemable'. But now that I know there's someone out there that looks like me, it makes a lot more sense."

He shovelled a final mouthful of food into his mouth and dropped the knife and fork onto the plate before pushing it away from him, satisfied he'd eaten enough. Once he had chewed and swallowed, he drained the last of the drink he had been given and set the cup down on the other side of him, next to the half-empty plate.

"You aren't eating," he pointed out. He wasn't even going to pretend to be worried that she'd done something to the food. She knew that he would have sensed such a deception and not taken a bite at all.

"Not particularly hungry," Alitha said with a bored wave. She pushed the plate away pointedly.

"Hmm," Zak said, tapping on the tabletop. "This … person—the one that looks like me. Is he close to these girls? Is that why they hesitated?"

"The blonde, Tash, is his older sister," Alitha replied, pushing her own plate away from her now that there was no need to pretend she was eating. "And the other is the daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia, as I have already mentioned. I'm not entirely aware of her connection to Zak, but a former agent of mine was of the impression that there was a romance between Jaina and Zak.

"I find such a thing to be highly unlikely, however. I'm more inclined to believe that the Arrandas joining Skywalker's pathetic excuse for a Jedi training academy led them to become good friends with the Solo children. Zak would have been too timid to pursue a relationship."

Zak smiled inside at the knowledge that Alitha disregarded any chance that he could have a romantic involvement with anyone. It was arrogant to assume that his heart still burned for no one but her, or that he was anywhere near as shy as she had just made him out to be.

He'd recently shown Jaina just how strongly he felt for her, and felt no need to send such reassurances across his bond to her, knowing that she would know.

"I sense something personal between you and the Arrandas," he said guardedly. He was going to gauge just how much he could get from her about her quest to obtain Zak, and her reasons for doing so. Though he'd already heard some of it from Allina, he wanted to hear it from the source. "Something I should know about?"

Alitha regarded him for a second, like an arachnid observing a tasty insect caught in its web, and getting ready to strike out. Though, her gaze was more of assessing how much she dared tell him, and how much he needed to know considering the partnership they'd tentatively agreed on.

"I met the both of them on Sullust twenty-four years ago," she said slowly. "We became … friends"—Zak contained the gag reflex, and felt Jaina laughing at the reaction—"but, for some reason, they disappeared. I heard nothing from them; where they'd gone, why they hadn't told me or taken me with them.

"While true I wasn't really dependant on them, I'd come to see the potential they both had to be darksiders under my tutelage. Originally, I would have hoped to use them to further my goals of taking over the Empire by killing my father. After that, I most likely would have killed off one and kept the other as an apprentice. But he and his incompetent apprentice were dead by this point, and instead I focussed my goals into rebuilding the glory the Empire once attained."

"I wasn't too fond of the old Palpatine government that my parents told me about," Zak admitted, telling a half-truth. "I shudder at the thought that it would have continued with a new leader."

Alitha scowled at him. "My father had his reasons for what he was doing. No one else could see it! It was their short-sightedness that led to the formation of the Rebel Alliance and the downfall of a stable government that could have held the galaxy together."

"What reasons?" Zak asked quickly.

For some reason, he felt genuine curiosity and wanted to know what possible reason Palpatine could have had to destroy the Old Republic and reform it into a tyrannical Empire that took the power away from the people and gave it all to him. As it stood, he'd always believed it was typical Sith arrogance, and the belief that they alone deserved to rule above all others.

What was that old Sith motto? The weak _deserve_ to be trodden on by those that have the will to seek power.

Alitha opened her mouth to reply, and then shut it again and appraised him once more. "It's nothing I have much information, much less any confirmation, on. My father kept no journals or data files regarding it, so I have no idea what he thought it was. But … I've had strange visions during times when I've had enough peace to contemplate."

Zak dove into her thoughts, but did it so gently and subtly that he sensed she was not at all aware of it. He wove and slipped through everything that wasn't important until he found what it was, and frowned. Instantly horrified at the images, he pulled himself out and scrambled to make sure she hadn't discovered his intrusion.

"Visions?" Zak closed his eyes for a moment and forced the muscles in his neck and cheek to twitch in a way that was perceptible only to those that would be looking for it.

Opening his eyes again, he stared across at Alitha. "Grotesque, mutilated creatures covered in organic armour, rather than metal? Armour that can resist a blaster or a lightsaber." he said curiously. Alitha's eyes shot open in surprise, thus confirming what he was saying. "Visions of great, spiral ships as big as moons and planets with power akin to a Death Star or more, housing hundreds of thousands of these creatures. Visions of a great conflict across the entire galaxy, involving hundreds of planets, destruction wrought on as many worlds as it touched?"

"You have had the visions as well?" Alitha breathed.

Zak nodded. He hadn't really, but now that he'd seen the images in her head, he was bound to have nightmares about it.

He considered that they could have only been the insane thoughts of Palpatine trying to justify his thirst for power. Perhaps that was what he had told his generals, and those that thought he had to explain his reasons for taking control.

But Alitha was Sith. She would have known better. Than to believe those excuses if they were fiction.

"With alarming frequency," Zak said softly. "Though, I had no sense of time regarding it. I've rarely had visions of the future. For the most part, my visions have been of past events, past wars, past conflicts. So I interpreted these new visions as having taken place many thousands, even millions, of years ago. It never occurred to me that they could have been events yet to come."

"I'm not entirely sure either way," Alitha admitted. "But the logs of more than a few of the highest ranking officers in the old Empire's navy mentioned a "great unseen danger" that my father had mentioned to justify the creation of the Empire." Alitha sighed. "Whatever it was, it was evident that Vader was never told. Honestly, I'm not sure he would have cared if he'd known.

"His joining the ranks of the Sith had nothing to do with obtaining ultimate power for himself. He'd only wanted the power to save the ones he loved, and when that was lost to him, my father was the only person in the galaxy left that he could turn to. He was, for all intents and purposes, a disgrace to the Order."

Zak felt a sharp spike of anger across the bond from Jaina, and ignored it.

"A cheap justification, nonetheless," Zak said with a derisive snort. "Your father was Sith. He wanted to control the galaxy for the sheer sake of controlling the galaxy. Just as you do. Just as I do. Am I the only one of the three of us that can be totally honest and admit as much?"

Alitha actually chuckled. "Perhaps my father was power-mad. If there really is an outside threat, and we're not just crazy, it only served to give him a standing point on which to found his Empire. I'll admit that I wish to control the galaxy because the thrill of power appeals to me. But if my father was right, and these … visions … serve a purpose, would it not be prudent to be prepared for that?"

"Always prepare for the impossible," Zak said with a shrug.

"I like—" Zak didn't hear how she finished that, because suddenly Jaina was screaming at him inside his head.

A scream filled with pain and fear.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

_**BAZAAR; YAMA NTO, NAVII LYA PRIME**_

Tash could sense that Jaina was distracted as they wandered the streets of Yama Nto's market district. She didn't think much of it. Jaina was always distracted when she and Zak were parted. And now that their relationship had reached a physical level, it would probably be more pronounced.

"Busy?" she asked the darker-haired girl with a smile.

"Just checking in on Zak," Jaina admitted with a shrug. "Seeing how his _date_ with Alitha is going. He's talking about us."

Tash sensed through her friend that her brother had been worried about telling her in case she reacted badly. While true, she was still seething over the fact that he hadn't told her about his connection to Allina, she would have understood his reasons for divulging what he had to Alitha. It would put him on better footing with her.

"Anything good?" she asked carefully, eyeing off the jewellery display at the stand in front of them. The elderly stall keeper was conversing with her younger assistant while watching the two Jedi out of the corner of her eye.

Jaina shook her head and shrugged. "Not really. He's telling her about how he's been chasing us all the way from Bestine for destroying his ship and forcing him to steal an inferior one." Her comlink bleeped and she swiftly retrieved it. "Yes?"

"_It's Jacen. I'm just making my final approach to the spaceport now. I know Zak said he wanted me to stay with Allina but I have something to report that might cheer you all up a little bit. Where can I meet you?_"

"We've got an apartment at a lodge relatively near the spaceport," Jaina replied. "That'll do just fine. Tash and I are taking a look around the bazaar at the moment, but we shouldn't be too long." Then, apparently sensing that her brother was about to ask, she continued. "We're in room four-eighteen; third floor, north-eastern wing. Be sure to mind rub the desk clerk on your way through."

"_See you there_," Jacen replied.

Jaina clicked off and Tash raised an eyebrow. "What could be so important that he decided to deliver this news to us in person? He could have just waited for my next scheduled trip to the _Glory_."

"Which is tomorrow," Jaina replied.

Tash shrugged.

"Maybe it couldn't wait?" her friend suggested hopefully.

Tash sensed the thought run through Jaina that it might be about Allina's condition. For the first time, she felt genuine concern for the younger girl stab its way into Jaina's thoughts, though it wasn't coming from her brother.

She restrained the smile and turned back to the jewellery stall for a moment before they moved on.

* * *

A siren sounded nearby and Tash turned to the owner of the stall she and Jaina were standing in front of and arched a questioning eyebrow. "What's that?" she asked.

"Sandstorm alarm," the salesman responded with a shrug. "The sandstorms here can be quite unpredictable but they usually come through the city once a year. We're far overdue for a storm, as a matter of fact."

"How long until it hits?" Jaina asked.

"Two hours at the earliest," the man replied.

"If these storms are so unpredictable, how are you able to manage so much warning?"

"To give people the chance to get indoors and the bazaar and commerce districts ample time to close down business until the storm passes. If it turns out to be a false alarm, there's no harm done. But, as I said, we're overdue for a storm."

Tash and Jaina nodded and scanned the bazaar to see that all of the stall owners and renters were packing and storing their wares in mobile crates as quickly as they could and stacking them precariously atop repulsor decks for transport. Citizens and visitors were hurrying away, scattering in every direction like insects from a disturbed hive.

"You young ladies better scamper, too," the man said from behind them. Tash turned and flashed a smile that took him off guard. "These storms are extremely hazardous to human flesh. Scour it right off your bones, it would."

"Don't worry about us, sir," Tash said. "We're pretty fast runners."

The man nodded once and looked the two of them up and down very carefully, most likely looking for the lightsabers and comlinks that were carefully hidden away under their long coats. "Jedi?" he asked.

"Nope," Tash half-lied, "just fast runners." After all, she wasn't a Jedi until she made Padawan status. The man nodded again and turned to start packing his things. "Would you like some help?"

She sensed that in the distraction, Jaina's thoughts had turned back to Zak, and she was listening to his conversation with Alitha.

Tash didn't begrudge her. It would help to know if Alitha was onto the fact that they were on the planet. So far, Zak had only told her that he was tracking them, not that he _had_ tracked them here.

"Thanks, missy," the man said, "but I'll be just fine. You get yourselves indoors as soon as you can."

"Are you sure?" Tash insisted. The man nodded and she smiled and bid him a good day as she looped her arm through Jaina's and started to pull her through the quickly deserting bazaar back in the direction of their apartment.

"Anything interesting yet?" she asked.

"Nope," Jaina said absently. She pulled herself out of Zak's thoughts and Tash released her arm so that she could guide herself. "Just idle chit-chat. Boring business."

Tash nodded and they continued onwards.

Tash soon became very distracted herself. She'd only just found out recently that Zak was genetically tied to self-confessed "prisoner", Allina. It went a long way to explain why he was doing all of this and putting himself in such a dangerous position to save her. But Tash couldn't exactly entirely understand it. They didn't know Allina well, to be frank. While she trusted that Allina was capable of change, and had proved as much, there was still so much about this girl that no one knew.

Her illness, for example; the genetic breakdown that she'd apparently insisted had happened before, only weeks before she'd arrived on Yavin 4 asking for Zak. Jacen had filled her in on the details about that. And Zak had told them all that he'd noticed the first signs of it months ago but hadn't thought anything of it after Allina insisted that it was a strain-related injury.

Even through everything he let others see and sense in him, she, and quite possibly Jaina, could see that there was a part of him that had wished he'd insisted on acting on that at the time. Part of him that wished he'd insisted on her remaining within the confines of the infirmary for further diagnosis and treatment. He expected that they would have beaten this thing long ago if he'd been diligent enough to spot the signs.

Tash thought it was amusing how alike the two of them were. Both Zak and Allina were more than willing to accept blame for things that weren't their fault.

Zak was willing to accept blame for her condition, as well as all of the acts he'd committed nearly two years ago, even though he could do nothing to prevent either from happening. Allina was more selective in that the things she blamed herself for was the assault of Yavin and the exiling of the Jedi Praxeum.

There was a horrible screech in the air, all of a sudden, and Tash tore herself from her thoughts and stopped to look around. Jaina too had pulled herself away from her own preoccupation.

"What in the world was that?" she asked.

Tash shrugged and reached around behind and under her coat to grasp her lightsaber.

Something slammed into her hard and she whirled around and fell to the ground, both hands in front of her to brace herself against the fall.

The impact jarred her spine and she allowed herself to remain still for a moment while she recovered. When she pushed herself back to her feet, she drew and activated her lightsaber and the silver blade sprung to live. Behind her, she heard the snap-hiss of Jaina activating her own weapon.

"Are you OK?" the other girl asked her. She nodded and reached around to rub her shoulder with her left hand whilst keeping her eyes on the buildings around them.

"Did you see what that was?" she asked Jaina. It had come from in front of her true, but to her it looked no better than a sickly blur and green and grey and orange. Jaina shook her head and the two of them stood back to back, looking around in every direction for whatever it was that had hit Tash.

"Do you sense anything?" Jaina asked.

"I'm not sure," Tash said, frowning.

There was _something_ nearby. But she couldn't tell what it was. She was unable to distinguish it from humanoid or non humanoid, sentient or not.

"What do you make of it?"

"I haven't the slightest clue," Jaina said. "It's got a dark feel to it. Whatever it is sure likes the dark side."

Something again rushed them and slipped into the space between the two of them, hooking greenish claws into Tash's shoulder. She yelped and tried to swing with her lightsaber but to no avail; the shoulder that had been clawed was of the arm attached to her lightsaber. The alien grip tightened in that split second and she felt herself lifted clear off her feet and flung through the air away from Jaina. She hit the ferrocrete hard and rolled away.

She pulled herself up to her feet and spun. She still couldn't see anything or anyone around her other than Jaina. The other girl looked just as confused as she did. Neither of them could exactly _feel_ their unknown assailant. All they could tell was that it had some kind of connection to the dark side, that it was in fact there, and that it was alone.

Whatever it was that the attacker was after; both girls knew that it couldn't be good—at least not for them.

As she regained her balance, Tash watched Jaina sidestep. A blur rushed her from behind as she stepped out of the way, and Tash followed suit with a dive that sent a sharp pain through her damaged shoulder.

At least, Tash thought, I was able to avoid being hit this time.

An angry screech rent the air behind her and she turned to face the source of the sound, and what she saw horrified her.

The creature was humanoid … mostly. So much so, in fact, that it looked almost human in appearance. Its eyes were deep black pits set into sunken sockets, its nose almost flat against its face. What hair it had atop its scalp was matted and filthy, with patches of scaly growth like those along its arms and legs. Its hands ended in sharp-tipped claws and there were vicious spines along its wrists, angled back.

It was dressed—for lack of a better term—in what looked to be the tattered, torn, and unwashed remnants of a New Republic naval flight uniform, orange and white and blade with the half of the Republic's naval standard intact and printed on the uniform's chest.

It bore its teeth at them. Tash cringed at the disturbing sight of dozens upon dozens of sharp, needle-point teeth along its upper and lower gums which were as black as the tongue that darted between them.

"Jaina …" Tash started.

"I have no clue," Jaina replied, sounding just as uneasy.

The creature snarled at them; a low, deadly sound that put Tash on edge and sent an uncontrolled shiver down her spinal column.

It flexed its claws, and Tash saw the disturbing splash of blood—her blood—dripping from the claw tips. Pain shot through her shoulder as a reminder of the attack and the subsequent dive and she switched her lightsaber to her free hand and held it up.

She hoped, without knowing why it should make sense to do so, that the creature would recognise the peril involved in continuing an ill-advised assault on a Jedi—on a _pair_ of Jedi. But either it didn't comprehend the danger it was in, or it thought that it had the upper hand, or it simply didn't care either way, for it charged them again with claws out and teeth snapping.

"Tash get down!" Tash obeyed and dropped flat to her stomach. She felt the Force tingle all around her as Jaina aimed a Force push at the creature.

She felt the power behind the push, but when she looked up to see the result she saw the creature affected no more than a stumble as it continued its charge. She rolled to the side to avoid being trampled and spun up to her feet and brought the lightsaber in her hand to bear.

The creature ran right past her and continued towards Jaina.

Tash beat it to her and stood in the way, swinging wide with the lightsaber to cleave off an appendage in warning. She felt the blade slice through flesh, heard the angry scream of the monster, and then felt the hard strike as it swung its still-intact arm around and clubbed her in the side of the head.

"Ta—ugh!"

Tash recovered groggily and shook her head before looking over to see what had followed.

Jaina was facing her, her arms limp at her sides and her lightsaber deactivated on the ground by her feet, slowly rolling away from her. Her face was contorted in an expression of pain, her head thrown roughly to the side with her hair swaying gently in the breezy fore-front to the incoming sandstorm.

Behind her was the monster that had attacked them. Its remaining arm was draped across Jaina's lower body, and Tash saw the spines along its wrist were buried half-way into the brunette's stomach flesh. The creature's mouth was at the exposed neck, meanwhile, its teeth sunk in deep, and it looked as though it was drinking from her.

"Jaina!" Tash surged forward. The creature looked up when she reached them but already Tash had swung with her fist. She caught it on its flat nose with all the physical strength she could bring to bear.

It was enough.

The creature's head snapped backwards from the blow and its teeth withdrew from Jaina's neck.

But as it staggered backwards, it yanked Jaina with its arm, the spines still embedded in her stomach. Jaina had now recovered from the temporary shock and spun away, screaming as the spines tore out of her flesh.

Tash saw the opening and went for it. She charged forward, lightsaber reactivated and swinging.

The creature recovered quickly and ducked under her initial slash, sweeping its leg out to trip her. She jumped over it, using the Force to propel her over the monster's head and to soften her landing on the other side of it, then she stabbed backwards with the blade of her weapon. She hit only air, but spun around with her left leg out in front of her.

Her foot connected with the side of the creature's head and it spun away from her, growling. When it came back at her, it slashed out with its claws, ripping through the fabric of the clothes covering her chest. She didn't feel the sting of pierced skin, and thought it a close call as she surged forward again and slashed left and right with the lightsaber.

Blackish ooze seeped from the wound her lightsaber caused, and she blinked in confusion. The super-heated plasma of a lightsaber _cauterised_ flesh when he passed through it. The creature shouldn't have been—

Before she could finish the thought, its remaining arm clubbed her hard in the gut and she fell forward, winded. She braced herself against the ferrocrete with her bad arm while keeping a hold of her lightsaber and stabbed upwards blindly when her senses tweaked.

She heard a pained wail, felt the resistance of flesh, and looked up to see the creature hovering over her, as if ready to strike. Its clawed hand was raised and its teeth were glistening, but it had been halted by the burning sensation of plasma stabbed through its sternum.

It looked down at her, eye to eye, blinked twice, and then keeled over to the side and slumped to the ground in a heap.

Tash deactivated her lightsaber, pushed herself to her feet, and stepped over to it carefully.

It wasn't yet completely dead, but its legs and arm were twitching in its death throes, as if trying to stave off the inevitable. Its teeth were clamped together, as if it were wincing at the pain, and its eyes looked back up at Tash with what she thought looked like relief.

"Thank … you …" it wheezed in a distorted rasp that sounded reptilian mixed with human. Its eyelids fluttered and closed, and the creature released its final breath.

* * *

Tash could tell that Jacen obviously hadn't expected them to meet him at the spaceport. He'd finished the shutdown procedures of his borrowed shuttle's cycle and was starting across the spaceport when she arrived carrying Jaina across her chest.

She altered her course to take her straight towards the camouflaged _Silent Hunter_ in a different hangar.

"JACEN!" she called over her shoulder, making sure she got across the urgency of the situation. She heard slapping footsteps—hurried footsteps—as Jacen picked up speed to catch up to her. When he was close enough to look around her at the bundle in her arms, he groaned.

"Jaina!" The anguish in his voice was thick, but he stepped around Tash and paced her to the _Hunter_ to open the ship's boarding ramp.

He stepped aside when Tash reached him and she didn't pause in jogging up the ramp and into the ship. She spun almost immediately after clearing the ramp and stepped into the lift chute, reaching out with her mind to the controls.

When the lift plate stopped at the second-from-top deck, she took a moment to balance and then stepped out and went down the hall toward the main cabin at the front end of the deck.

A dull thud behind her alerted her to Jacen's arrival; no doubt he'd launched himself up the ladder shaft to the second deck to catch up with her.

She kicked the barely-ajar door open, pushed her way over to the bed against the far wall, and dropped to her knees to slip Jaina onto the soft mattress as gently as she could. Jacen was by her side in an instant, his hand shooting to his twin's forehead to check her temperature.

"A cold fever?" he said, his face screwed up in confusion.

Tash swatted his hand away and replaced it with hers. She frowned. Jaina was indeed running noticeably colder than the human body's base temperature. But it wasn't a cold of death. It was … something else.

"What happened?" Jacen asked cautiously as Tash got to her feet and yanked a stack of sheets and blankets from the wardrobe in the corner. She shook them out and flung them over Jaina, straightening the many thick layers before adding the next. "Tash! What happened?"

She brought herself under control then, and turned to look at Jacen. "We were attacked." The wind outside was just beginning to whistle. The sandstorm was coming closer. But she wouldn't let it distract her. "I don't know what it was; some kind of … thing. I was able to kill it but not before—" She choked on the rest of the sentence, and then her eyes went wide when she remembered something.

She drew back the blankets as far as Jaina's waist and pulled away the shredded fabrics of her clothes. As she had expected, there was a long, jagged gash across her belly, weeping red with blood.

"_Stang!_" Jacen hissed. He dashed out of the room for a moment and returned a second later, slapping something into Tash's hand.

She saw that it was an injector and didn't hesitate to prick the point of it as close to Jaina's stomach wound as she could and plunging the bluish liquid into her system.

Bacta.

She tossed the injector aside, not caring where it went, and then tore a strip off her cape and folded it up into a thick pad-like stopper for the wound. She placed it on the weeping gash, then drew the blankets back over Jaina and stood up to face Jaina's brother.

"Take her back to the _Corellian Glory_ quickly. She needs medical attention." She turned to go.

Jacen was quiet for a moment, and then spoke up. "Uh … Tash?" he started. Tash turned again to face him and placed her hands on her hips. "What's this black mark on her neck?"

Tash dropped her hands, frowning, and approached the bedside again to look over Jacen at his sister. Sure enough, there was a patch of blackened, rough-looking flesh on Jaina's neck at precisely the point the creature had bitten her. There was no other evidence of a bite at all.

Instantly, Tash had to fight away the nostalgic memories of when an unexplained patch had appeared on _her_ body many, many years ago.

"That wasn't there before," she said uncertainly.

"Where are you going?" Jacen asked her, changing the topic.

"To get the body of the thing that did this." Tash backed towards the door again. "But Jaina can't wait. Get her to the _Glory_ immediately. I'll be up soon with the body on the shuttle you brought down."

Jacen nodded and Tash took it as her queue that she could now leave, which she did, wrapping another strip from her cloak around her damaged shoulder and hissing at the pain.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Tash Arranda didn't know that she was being watched. If she had, she might have taken better care not to be seen by curious eyes.

Alitha was not smiling as she gazed across the street from rooftop. Varad Torani was at her side, and he too was unsmiling, and yet at the same time contemplative.

She still hadn't found a way to penetrate the insolent Sith-wannabe's thoughts, and she had to admit to herself—though never to another living soul—that this young man had such knowledge of the Force to rival her own. Though she'd feigned haughtiness upon their first encounter only days ago when she'd mistaken him for Zak Arranda, she'd in fact felt fear for the first time that she could ever remember.

The upstart renegade had bested her then, only because she'd been expecting Zak and had greatly underestimated the man's skill. Since then he'd shown a little genuine interest in her and the Imperium, and their plans, while constantly maintaining a vigil and an impenetrable wall around his thoughts.

There were times when she looked at him where she could swear he looked much younger, much more familiar to her; that his features were softened by compassion and inexperience. But it wasn't so. She would sense such deception even if she couldn't breach his mind.

So they watched together as Tash Arranda bound the lifeless corpse of Alitha's now dead hybrid, strapped it to her back, and then headed off down the street back towards the spaceport.

Alitha turned to Varad and grimaced, mostly for show than actual concern. "An unexpected setback," she said almost apologetically.

The man didn't look at her, but instead his gaze remained locked on the young blonde girl across the street walking away.

There was something in his gaze that Alitha couldn't quite put her finger on.

Was it longing? Could it have been anticipation? Perhaps it was nothing more than a healthy composition of curiosity regarding something he had no prior knowledge of with the instinctual fear of that unknown and the frustration of being so close to someone he'd been hunting and yet so prevented from acting on his predatory desires.

Alitha could only speculate until she found a way around his defences. Until then, there was nothing wrong with keeping her wits sharp by working him out the same way _normal_ people did.

"Let's get back to your ship before the storm hits," Torani said emotionlessly.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

_**SICK BAY, OBSERVATION WARD; NEW REPUBLIC STAR DESTROYER:**_** CORELLIAN GLORY**

Luke had felt her pain as if he were experiencing it himself. Whatever had happened to his niece, Jaina, had sent him crashing to his knees on the bridge of the _Corellian Glory_, in the middle of a discussion with the ship's captain and his own wife.

Mara, too, felt the disturbance. Though not related by blood to Jaina as Luke was, she was his niece's Jedi mentor and the bond between them was strong enough to alert them to each other's pains and dangers.

When Luke had recovered enough to excuse himself, he and Mara raced out of the bridge, leaving a very stunned Daniel Tenaha behind wondering what he'd missed, and raced to the infirmary to head Jacen off. He sensed that was where his nephew would take his twin. Though, his senses also told him that Tash and Zak were still on the planet below.

When they burst into the infirmary, Luke saw that Jacen had beaten him, and was laying his sister down gently on an examination table.

Mara gasped beside him.

Jaina had grown so deathly pale, and there was a large patch of black leeching at her flesh. Luke could feel it growing in size, though at such a pace the untrained eye couldn't yet detect it.

Already the entire left side of her neck had been turned an unnatural black colour and it had spread out along her collar bone and up to her jaw line; tiny tendrils of infection shooting out like stray strands of an arachnid's web.

Her clothes were dirty and matted to her skin at the abdomen, where a non-matching slash of cloth was pressed tightly to her stomach.

He stepped up beside his nephew and apprentice and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to keep the worry out of his own voice. Mara rounded the bed to the other side, and ignored Geesev's attempts to shoo her away.

"Tash said they were attacked by something," Jacen said, clearly shaken. Luke gently squeezed the young man's shoulder for comfort, and felt a little strength rear up inside of him. "She's bringing the body of the assailant up herself, but she wanted me to get Jaina up here as soon as possible."

"A good thing that you did so too, Master Solo," Geesev said, inclining its head as it took a sample from the blackened skin of Jaina's neck.

"Do you know what it is?" Luke asked.

"No. But at the rate of spread I have detected in this unidentified infection, ensuring that Mistress Solo reach medical facilities as timely as possible was perhaps the most prudent course rather than wait for the body of the perpetrator. I shall have more information when I have run a thorough analysis. It would expedite the process if Mistress Perisca volunteered her assistance again."

"I'll see to it," Mara said, and then left.

Geesev nodded and turned his back to hover over to an analysis bench across the room.

Luke, meanwhile, had questions. He turned his nephew to look at him and forced a smile into the otherwise pained expression on his face. "What else did Tash say?"

"Not much," Jacen replied. "She gave Jaina a bacta injection to stem the infection to her stomach wound and then dressed it … somewhat. Then she told me to bring Jaina here and said she'd be right behind me with the assailant."

"You didn't read her?"

"I was a little more preoccupied with my sister being in the state she's in!" Jacen responded peevishly. He caught himself immediately and apologised. "Sorry."

"I understand," Luke said, touching his nephew's shoulder again. "If it was your mother there …" Jacen nodded.

Luke reached down to his belt to pre-emptively retrieve his comm., which shortly bleeped at him. He clicked the transceiver.

"This is Luke," he said.

"_Luke; it's Daniel. I've got the _Recluse_ on approach with Miss Arranda on board. I've cleared her for a landing in the primary hangar bay if you wanted to go down and meet her there._"

"No thanks, Daniel," Luke replied. "Have a couple of marines sent to meet her there. She's got a body that needs to be brought to the infirmary _at once_." Then he clicked off and clipped the comlink back to his belt.

"That was a lot quicker than I expected," Jacen admitted with an eyebrow cocked. "Whoever, or whatever, it was that attacked them couldn't have been too far from the spaceport."

Luke frowned. "Either way, we'll soon see what kind of infection we're dealing with."

* * *

When Tash and the marines arrived with the alien fifteen minutes later, Luke's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"What in fiery pits of Mustafar is that?" Jacen exclaimed as they dragged the creature into the infirmary, its feet dragging along the deck behind it.

Luke recognised the orange remnants of a New Republic fighter pilot's jumpsuit hanging in tatters from the creature, as if it had violently outgrown and outworn the uniform to the point it was at now.

But for the creature wearing it, it might have been genuine. He could remember no such instance where he'd heard of such a species serving in the Republic Navy.

"I haven't the slightest clue," Tash said abruptly. She nodded to a vacant bed against the wall away from Jaina and the marines hefted the body onto it, gave it a final look, and then turned on their heels to leave without a word.

"That thing attacked Jaina?" Jacen asked her. She nodded and Luke stepped over to the bedside to examine it.

"It looks partly human," he mused. "A result of a cross-mating I suspect."

"You would be incorrect," a voice said from behind them.

Luke turned around at the sound to see Allina standing there, holding herself up by the frame of the door between the main operating room and the observation room.

She looked deathly pale, with dark lines cross crossing her skin and eyes devoid of all colour, as if now blinded by the genetic faults that were killing her. Her lips were cracked, and her arms and legs were heavily bruised from use that she should not have even attempted.

"Allina!" Both he and Jacen raced to her side just as her strength faltered and she collapsed to the deck, still conscious. Jacen got to her first and looped his arms under her, lifting her up from the deck. "Back to the observation ward," Luke told him.

He turned to look at Geesev, who was hovering over the corpse of the alien creature, prodding it with cold metal finger clamps curiously.

"Do not let that thing anywhere near Jaina," he said.

"I hardly believe it's in any condition to be _moving_, Master Luke." But Geesev shrugged anyway and turned away from him to continue prodding.

Luke and Tash followed Jacen back to the observation ward, where he deposited Allina gently back to her bed.

"Are we going to need to restrain you?" Jacen asked her.

"No need, Jacen. She used up a lot of strength just to do that much. I doubt she'll be able to move for quite some time." Luke gently stroked the girl's cheek and gestured with his hand, pulling the covers over her once more. "That was incredibly ill-advised, young lady. I presume there was a reason for it?"

"You were wrong." She closed her eyes and grimaced, trying in vain to suppress whatever pain she was feeling.

"Get some rest. You can tell me whatever it is that you know about it when you're feeling better, OK?" Luke said softly.

"There's not enough time," Allina replied quickly. "That thing is called an Hss'an. It is one part human, one part Hssiss."

"That's not possible."

Luke knew full well what an Hssiss was; a large, deadly reptilian creature native to a few worlds in the galaxy heavy in the presence of the dark side of the Force. At one time, the creature had been the favoured pets of Dark Jedi and Sith alike, as their venom had the interesting side-effect of imbuing those that survived an attack from one with the dark side of the Force and made them susceptible to the whims of those that were immensely strong in the dark side.

"It's possible in the same way that _I_ am possible," Allina said bitterly. "I saw my mother's notes on the project, but I had no idea she'd gone ahead with it already. I believed she was still in the research and theoretical stages. It's _imperative_ that you allow me to help Jaina quickly."

"Why?"

"From what I read on the project, I found that the bite of an Hss'an has ... unexpected side-effects."

"I'm aware of the effects of Hssiss venom ..." Luke offered. Allina didn't respond as if this was helpful information, so he continued. "What can we expect?"

"The same thing as could be expected from Hssiss venom," Allina sighed. "But at the same time, the genetic code of the parent Hss'an mutates in the victim."

"No!" Jacen breathed. "She's going to _become_ one of those things?"

"If we can't stop it," Allina said.

She tried to laugh, but ended up coughing instead until one of the medical droids came over to her side and injected something into her arm.

She calmed and then spoke again. "Apparently we've just found out how my mother intended to control Zak and his opposite."

"She was going to send this ... thing ... after them?" Jacen asked. Allina nodded.

"He's still down there!" Tash cried. "What if she has more?"

"If Mother doesn't suspect that Zak is lying to her, he's safe for now." Allina assured her weakly. Luke turned back to Tash and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Go back down, but be extremely careful," he said quietly. "Don't be seen, and if you need something, have it brought to you rather than going out to get it yourself. I assume the apartment is still paid for?"

"Zak assured me it was," Tash stammered. "But—"

"No buts. Get back down there now. He's going to need someone to back him up if it all starts going south." When Tash didn't move, he pulled on her shoulder until she had turned to face the door and gave her the gentlest of pushes. "Go! Now!"

She didn't need to be told again. Without another word, she was out of the infirmary, and the door hissed shut behind her.

The _Glory's_ GH-7 medical unit hovered around the edge of the room with a sheet of flimsi in its clamp, assimilating the data upon it as it entered new variables. Geesev was still in the other ward, prodding and analysing and theorising about the strange alien hybrid.

Luke turned back to Allina and was about to announce his departure when he saw Jacen handing her a sheet of flimsiplast.

"Jacen!" he scolded. "She's in no condition to be doing anything at this time and you're asking her to help you with Jaina?" He wasn't exactly angry, merely disappointed.

While he too was in pain from Jaina's condition, and he could understand fully what Jacen was feeling—being a twin himself—it didn't excuse his nephew's asking assistance from a fatally ill patient.

"I didn't—"

"I requested the flimsi," Allina replied quickly, cutting Jacen off before he could finish. "If these are to be my final moments—" Luke opened his mouth to protest and she narrowed her eyes at him, reminding him that despite not being able to see, she could still _feel_ her environment. "If these are to be my last moments I will _not_ spend them laying here like an invalid when I can do some good for those that have shown me a kindness."

"Allina, I can't ask you to do this." Luke frowned and approached her again, standing next to his silently panicking nephew. He reached out to the young man with his thoughts and attempted to add calm to the cacophony in his mind.

"You're not. And neither is Jacen. While family she might be to you, you are both honourable people and would no sooner trade one life for another as Zak would."

"She thinks …" Jacen's words drifted off and he swallowed hard before he could allow himself to finish the thought aloud. "She thinks that by doing this, Jaina will realise that she was wrong about her … even if she won't get the chance to apologise for it."

"Allow me some selfish motives, please," Allina said with a smile as she tapped away at the flimsi's interactive surface with her fingertips. Luke saw the bruises on her fingers deepen and couldn't contain the sympathy reflex in time.

"You're so certain Zak won't be able to help?" he asked the young lady. Her fingers stopped moving and she let the thin sheet fall flat into her lap as she turned her unseeing eyes towards him and Jacen and blinked just once. "Why?"

"Look at me, Master Skywalker," she breathed heavily. "I cannot see, I can barely hear and my _erratic_ connection to the Force grows weaker with each passing minute. I've lost almost all of the strength of my muscles and you can't even imagine how much effort it takes to speak, and how much it's going to take to work with this." She tapped the flimsi and grimaced. "If I was not needed to help Jaina—and believe me I am—then there is every chance that I could be saved if Zak brings something back from the surface. But because I'm going to be hastening my deterioration and undoing Miss Perisca's efforts, I … Zak won't be back in time."

"Then don't help. Let Matilda do the work for you," Luke said, ignoring the emotional sting he felt in his nephew beside him. From the other room, he sensed Jaina wake, and heard her scream of pain through the doors, stabbing her brother in the heart as if with a lightsaber. "She can read the information from you and work on the cure from that."

"Then she will be unable to help Geesev and the _Glory_'s medical droid with Allina's cure," Jacen pointed out, subdued. He turned away from Luke and took a step out of reach.

"Jacen …"

"She's my sister. Allina is a friend. I will not choose between either of them, but I won't stop Allina from trying to help if she insists that it's the best thing she can do."

"And in doing so, you are just as much signing her death certificate as her mother is," Luke said calmly, disturbed by Jacen's words.

Stung, Jacen turned and glared at him. "I didn't do this to her! Her mother did! All I am saying is that if she wants to help us, why are we resistant to the idea? She's _chosen_ to help Jaina. No one forced her to consider it, no one threatened her. Hell, in her state, what would she care if she had been threatened?"

"Don't quarrel," Allina said, picking the flimsiplast up again. "I've made my decision. I wasn't asking for approval. Master Skywalker, as much as I respect you, if you are just going to resist me, I would like you to leave the infirmary. I need to concentrate."

Luke looked from the sickly girl to his nephew, incredulously trying to understand how Jacen could so choose this course of action.

As his nephew and student, he'd hoped that Jacen had learned a great many things from him over the years; such as the pain of such a decision. Perhaps Jacen had never truly been prepared to make a choice between the life of his sister, and the life of someone who was more or less a stranger.

Luke had been forced into the situation many times, and they'd all been difficult decisions to make.

In many cases, he'd been able to save Leia _and_ the innocent, but in others, his love for his sister had been too strong. He'd been young, and unwilling to lose the only family he had left at the time. Leia knew now, that they were older and had learned much more, that Luke could never make the choice again.

He forced a smile to his lips, nodded to them both, and left the infirmary.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

_I was dragged, against my will, into the vast chamber of the subterranean hangar bay beneath the Jedi Praxeum. The entire time, I was swearing and cursing the names of all three of the Solo brats, struggling to be free of Jacen and Anakin's combined grips._

_ Jaina Solo was behind me, her hand resting on the lightsaber at her hip just in case I happened to get free of her infuriating brothers. I struggled so hard that I was honestly surprised they hadn't lost their grip on me yet._

_ Maybe there was something about the Solo genes that would make one of the three worthy of being my apprentice._

_ I'd demanded many times that they let me loose, and that they face me like true warriors, rather than the cowardly Jedi they were thus far proving themselves to be. I said anything that would taunt them into reacting, taunt them into some kind of action that would leave an opening for me to exploit. But with Jaina there, I suspected that such attempts were in vain._

_ Any attempt I made to get into the boys' minds was intercepted by her and my thoughts recoiled against hers as if they were poison to me. Soon, she'd even started to prevent him from trying altogether by stimulating random spots of his mind with randomised measures of pressure. It was distracting to the point that he couldn't focus his abilities—akin to the method of applying electrical jolts to random spots on a body at random charge outputs as a form of torture._

_ The looks I saw Jaina shooting me by the time we all reached the hangar were definitely full of venomous intent, betrayal, and even sadness. It made me want to smile to think of just how much I'd wounded her._

_ Perhaps that indicated that she was the most worthy of the three of them. She could use that pain to tap into the dark side, to make herself stronger. She would feed on that pain, rather than shut it away._

_ I found my thoughts running over and over the situation that had led me to this._

_ Jaina had come to seek me out in the Grand Audience Chamber at the apex of the Praxeum facility, purportedly to calm me down; to bring me back to the light. But her twin brother Jacen had come with her, staying in the shadows and attempting foolishly to shield his thoughts and his presence from me. But I'd sensed him there, sensed the trap Jacen had been expecting, and the one he'd been planning to lay on me._

_ Provoking him had been almost boring … almost._

_ In truth, I was vastly disappointed by the displayed skill of the Jedi that I'd faced thus far._

_ The first time they'd managed to "contain" me in the hangar, I'd duelled many of them to escape them. My sister, Tash, received a hard boot to her face for her trouble, adding to the sins I had committed against her, and the joy that it gave me. She'd been knocked out faster than she could get her lightsaber unclipped from her belt. Mara Jade Skywalker, wife to the _mighty_ Grand Master, Luke, had lightsaber wounds and bruises across her body._

_ But the biggest challenge I'd faced had been the elusive Shi'ido, Wanom Catoxle._

_ Every time I tried to land a hit, the shape shifter skinshifted quicker and dodged around me. A few times, he'd changed his shape _around_ me, trying to trap my hands or feet inside his shifting mass to render me less threatening._

_ Eventually though, as with the others, he'd made a mistake. I'd thrown him up against the ferrocrete-lined wall and begun to use the Force to slowly crush him into a pulp against it. I would have succeeded too, if not for Luke Skywalker stepping in and throwing me halfway across the hangar into another wall._

_ The duel between he and I had been epic in comparison to any recordings I'd seen in my previous studies, and dwarfed our every-man-for-himself duel on Coruscant with Darth Pravus not too long ago. If we had been dancers or actors, the entire hangar would have been our stage, and the people and equipment stored there naught more than stage props._

_ No matter what techniques I tried to use against the seasoned elder Jedi, I'd failed to land even one single hit with my lightsaber. No matter what lightsaber style I'd switched to, Skywalker had switched to compensate and throw me off balance. Eventually, I lost control of the building rage and frustration inside me and unleashed it, throwing aside my lightsaber in favour of my bare hands._

_ Luke Skywalker, having not expected such an attack, had been caught entirely by surprised. I clasped my hands together and swung hard, clubbing them against Skywalker's wrists quickly to knock the lightsaber away before it could be brought to bear. Then I proceeded to savagely beat him._

_ But now, as the elderly Jedi approached me and my … escort, those thoughts of violence and savagery ran themselves like a classic holodrama in my mind, burned into my memory forever for my viewing pleasure._

_ The cuts and bruises and swelling were still evident on Skywalker's face, arms, and chest. He hadn't even put on a new shirt since I'd beat him. Did he even care?_

_ I felt Jaina retract her thoughts from my head and then she pushed past me and Jacen to tend to their aunt, who was still unconscious several meters away._

_ I wished that I could have finished the woman off, to tempt either Luke or Jaina, or even one of the boys, to attack and try to kill me out of pure rage and a desire for revenge. Surely, it would have succeeded in drawing one of the Solos close enough to the dark side that it would take only a mere touch of effort to turn them would have been a great result, and proof of the extraordinary powers he possessed now._

_ "So; you wanted to go again did you, Skywalker?" I said, forcing the use of multiple vocal chords with the Force—a feat that was impossible for most humans, and even to most Force-users._

_ Jaina looked over her shoulder briefly at me—only for a second—before she turned her gaze back to her incapacitated aunt. I struggled anew against her brothers as the anger built within me at the non-verbal slap in the face._

_ "All you had to do was extend the invitation, rather than send a squad of goons," I continued._

_ "I only want to help you, Zak," Skywalker replied softly, his eyes and his stature calm, composed._

_ I growled at the insult._

_ I didn't like that name anymore. I'd ceased to think of myself as Zak Arranda days ago. The name only served to remind me of who I _had_ been, not who I now was. It only reminded me of how repressed and weak I'd been, compared with how powerful and ambitious I now was._

_ I wasn't that person anymore. I was strong, I was powerful, and I was free to become the most powerful being in all of history._

_ With Darth Pravus gone, and no one else with me to help me along, only I could take the next steps. I was alone now. And while a part of me was OK with that fact, a part of me was terrified and craved the presence of another—a master, or a student—to help fulfil my potential._

_ "I told you not to call me that! I have cast off that useless name! You will address me henceforth as …" I took a second to think about it, and when it came to me, I managed a smile I hoped looked sinister. "_Darth Malonic!_"_

_ "Zak," Skywalker insisted stupidly._

_ A pregnant pause followed the idiotic statement and I noticed that Jaina was now watching us from across the chamber as I stared down her uncle with an expression of hatred and anger._

_ As I watched the older Jedi, I began to think of ways to get free again. I wanted nothing more at this moment that to break free of Anakin and Jacen and charge at their stupid uncle again. I could only imagine the panic and the frenzy of the rest of the Jedi if I succeeded in finishing Skywalker off. It would be thick in the air, palatable and intoxicating._

_ However, the look on Luke's face gave away his own thoughts; thoughts of the physical pain he was feeling and the psychological pains of failure and guilt._

_ And even amongst the fear I fed on from all of the younger Jedi around me, I could still feel Jaina's feelings across the link that had formed between us during our captivity. She couldn't stop thinking about the kiss we'd shared moments ago in the Grand Audience Chamber._

_ To be honest, I hadn't expected the kiss to affect me as much as it had. In a way, yes; he'd been expressing his feelings for her. But for the most part, the kiss had been intended as a lure. It had been but a means to draw Jacen out of hiding._

_ But when my lips touched hers, and our tongues intertwined, and our bodies pressed against each other, I'd felt so … joyous? I'd been so content to just remain that way for eternity. I'd been so at peace with myself and with everything, so long as she would always be with me._

_ "It looks to me like you're asking for another beating," I hissed, licking my lips in gleeful anticipation._

_ Jaina stood, off to the side, and released her unconscious aunt's hand. She turned to her left and nodded to Maru Chidor, who tossed her lightsaber back to her—apparently, she'd handed it to him previously._

_ She braved taking a few steps towards me as I struggled again against her brothers, and found that I'd almost broken free of their restraining holds that time. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded too much if they tore my arms off—I could still kill Skywalker with my feet, if need be._

_ As Jaina took yet another step, I found myself following her thoughts keenly. She became acutely aware of the lightsaber in her hand and of Jacen's and Anakin's and Luke's lightsabers hanging from their respective belts. Any one of them was close enough for me to obtain and use against the lot of them. My own lightsaber would have been much preferred, and would have given the massacre an air of elegance and art, but the Solos had, seemingly deliberately, left it in the Grand Audience Chamber after they'd finally managed to subdue me._

_ I soon realised that some of that palpable fear I was feeding off was coming from Jaina herself. I didn't need to read her to understand. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to kill me if I proved to be difficult. That was fine. I'd kill her in a heartbeat if she wouldn't join me._

_ "Zak," she started, taking another risky step closer. Her brothers glared at her, but in typical Jaina Solo fashion, she ignored them both. Some of her classmates watched on, fearful of another conflict between the two—they'd not witnessed the conflict only moments ago._

_ I fixed my gaze upon her beauty, and allowed a genuine smile to touch my lips, my eyes. I found that all thoughts of the others around us melted away at once, and I forgot that they all perceived me as a serious threat. All that seemed to matter at that point was that Jaina was here, nearby, and that I could have her if I could get to her. If I could just get free of her brothers. But they were holding me back._

_ Why were they holding me back? And why was Jaina not returning my smile with one of her own._

_ "Zak, please just listen to Uncle Luke," she pleaded with me. "Please? Just listen to him. You know he doesn't mean you any harm."_

_ Everything snapped back into focus, and I remembered where I was, who everyone else was, and exactly why I was being restrained._

_ With a great wrench of both arms, I slipped them painfully from Jacen's and Anakin's grasps and threw them out crossways in front of my chest, palms open. Calling upon the might of the Force, I ordered it to do my bidding and sent powerful, invisible waves outward._

_ Anakin and Jacen were lifted off their feet and flung away from me._

_ I didn't even stop to watch the progress of their flight, or where they would land. I didn't need to. So instead, I fed on the pain from my complaining muscles, and the intensified fear of those around me._

_ Feeling strong again, I hooked the thumb and forefinger of my right hand around their counterparts from my left and flung them out in front of me, launching an invisible Force wave ten times more powerful at Luke Skywalker and shooting him across the room like a fleshy cannonball. Needless to say, that brought some measure of joy to my mind, and I found myself smiling again._

_ I heard the sound of a lightsaber snapping to life behind me, and I reached my hand out and felt the cold slap of another lightsaber against my palm. I flicked its blade on and spun around just in time to defend myself from—_

_ "Jaina?" I said, a little confused at first._

_ Jaina Solo shoved hard against me without a word, and I stumbled backwards before recovering my bearings and standing ready for her to follow through._

_ She didn't disappoint. She came at me with all the strength she dared put behind her strikes, considering her slightly weakened state, her rebelling muscles._

_ I deflected each and every strike, keeping my gaze locked on her and her weapon while fixing my other senses on our environment so that I would be alerted if anyone decided they would try and help her. I couldn't allow myself to be surprised as I had with Anakin earlier._

_ So I wasn't, when someone did._

_ A younger student came at me, lightsaber held high to strike at my back. I was faster._

_ I sidestepped, back-stepped, and then kicked out at the younger student's rump, adding momentum to his forward charge. Jaina couldn't quite dodge quickly enough and her blade glanced off her peer's side as she spun away to her right._

_ I held the lightsaber I'd stolen in a defensive stance, the aqua-white blade glowing before him. I held the weapon with one hand and gestured with the other, chuckling as the young man crashed down to the ferrocrete floor, clutching at the non-fatal wound at his hip._

_ "Stupid brat!" I hissed. "Jedi younglings should learn to stay out of conflicts that have nothing to do with them. Wouldn't you agree, my love?"_

_ "How _dare_ you!" Jaina screeched. She charged at me then, lightsaber swinging wildly at me from every conceivable direction._

_ I fended off her strikes, barely; blocking and ducking most of them, and dodging and parrying the rest. But I wasn't able to turn the tables on her. Actually, I wasn't even able to _attempt_ it. I needed to do so, and I needed to do it soon, but she just wasn't giving me any openings._

_ We were nearing the edge of the hangar now. Students had moved away from us to avoid injury or death. Jaina was attempting to corner me, she might even have thought she was succeeding._

_ When I had my back almost against the wall, I jumped high and backwards towards it. Then I planted the heels of my boots against the stone and pushed off hard._

_ However, the move didn't come without consequences._

_ Landing hurt … a lot._

_ I made sure the lightsaber in my hand was deactivated before I began my descent, but I'd misjudged the landing and slammed hard on my shoulder and side. My roll skewed off to the side of the hangar and when I finally pushed myself back to my feet, I was unsteady and seeing stars._

_ Jaina pressed the temporary advantage I'd given her, imbuing her legs with the Force to charge forward and reach me with lightning speed and spinning a kick out at my chest._

_ Her foot made solid contact, and I flew across the hangar and slammed headfirst into a wall._

* * *

_**GUEST QUARTERS, IMPERIUM VICTORY DESTROYER:**_** NIGHT SKY**_**; YAYA NTO SPACEPORT, NAVII LYA PRIME**_

Zak woke with a start, gasping for breath and unable to speak … at first. He was sitting upright, his palms flat on the bed and his arms straight to brace him as he took in heavy breaths and tried to question what he had just remembered.

He pushed himself out of bed and slipped into clothes while he dwelled on the memory. He found himself at odds with his own desires.

He hated not knowing what it was he'd been responsible for during his lapse. He hated knowing that he'd done _something_ wrong but that no one would tell him and that they all insisted he should find out on his own through his own memories, as they couldn't offer the proper perspective.

But at the same time, now that he was recovering more and more memory of those events, he found himself hating it. Not only did he remember the acts he'd been responsible for, but he remembered every feeling, every thought, every sensation he'd experienced. All the anger and rage and resentment the phantom Sith within him had felt towards his peers and his friends, and especially towards Luke Skywalker—the Jedi he revered more than any.

Zak picked up the empty glass from the table against the wall, filled it with water from the crystal decanter sitting next to it, and drained all of the liquid to hydrate himself after the long sleep.

As he stretched out all of his senses, he found that around him, he sensed the silent electronic buzz of surveillance equipment.

His identity had to remain secret.

He still had a mission to complete.

He hated everything he'd done to hurt those he cared for. He hated having forgotten it, only to begin remembering it all now. And for the first time in months, his temper got the better of him.

With a violent sweep of his hand, he threw the contents atop the table viciously against the nearby wall, where all the glass objects shattered and sprayed outward. He threw the glass from his hand just for good measure, then turned on his heel and left the room.

When he stepped onto the bridge several minutes later, he was greeted by Alitha, who was wearing a large grin and looking very pleased with herself.

He guessed right away without needing to see her thoughts for confirmation that she'd been watching him. He suspected that someone might have been, and so that was why he'd thrown his little tantrum. Now, he suspected there would be stewards in his quarters cleaning up the mess and replacing everything he'd broken.

"Interesting way to redecorate," she said as he approached her, a deep frown pinned to his brow that wasn't entirely forced.

He was worried about what Alitha would do regarding Tash and Jaina. Jaina's scream of agony in his head had subsided long before he'd made it to the street where he and Alitha had watched Tash carting off the corpse of a creature that Zak didn't recognise. He'd sensed that the Sith woman did … though she made no effort to explain to him what it was.

"The original decor bored me." He stepped up beside her and gazed out through the forward viewport at the landing platform and the rest of the spaceport. "But now I tire of the new one. Have someone sent to my quarters to fix it." It wasn't a request.

Though hardly in a measure of power aboard her ship, portraying himself as Sith meant a degree of arrogance and superiority he had to project. He loathed it, but it was necessary.

"Already seen to," Alitha replied without smiling. Again, she wasn't impressed by his attitude.

Sometimes Zak was wary about how far he pushed his luck with her. He wanted to appear to her the way she expected him to be: arrogant, selfish, with delusions of superiority of skill and person over all others. But at the same time, he was cautious that there would be a limit to how far he should go. Alitha would only tolerate so much from him before she grew tired of the attitude and decided to dispose of his presence. It was a fine line, and it was one he was unsure of how close to crossing it he was.

Or if he already had.

"Credit for your thoughts," said beside him. He glanced at her out of the corner of his vision, and saw she wasn't looking at him.

"It's nothing," he said quickly; a little too quickly, maybe. She looked at him now; he could sense her gaze had drifted. She seemed interested in whatever it was, but he was about as likely to discuss it with her subordinates around as he was to sprout wings and suddenly fly.

She considered him for a moment, considered his answer, and he guessed that she found it unsatisfactory. She inclined her head down the gangway to the rear of the bridge. "Come with me," she said quietly. He didn't put up an argument. He simply followed her down the walk and through the opened plexiglass dividers separating the main bridge from the comm. stations at its rear.

Immediately, Zak thought that she was going to demand the officers present vacate the room and seal the divider but she surprised him by approaching a nondescript section of wall panelling.

She pressed her hand against it and it slide aside to reveal a secret chamber, which she ushered him into.

After Alitha snapped the door shut behind her, Zak turned to face her to see that she was leaning against the wall by the door with a half smile on her lips. "So what is it really?"

"Just something I've been wondering: what was that thing the Arranda girl was carting off yesterday?" he asked cautiously. "It couldn't have been human, and it barely passed for _near _-human. But I get this unshakeable feeling that you not only know what it is but that you had a hand in it being here."

Alitha regarded him for a moment, and then pushed herself from the wall and circled around to the desk behind him. She perched herself on the corner and brought her hands to a still rest in her lap.

"And why is it that you think this?"

"I sensed no confusion or curiosity from you when we saw her dragging the body away. It was as if you knew exactly what it was and why it was here and why it was the Arranda girl that had encountered it."

He saw that for a moment, the smile on her lips threatened to disappear. She appeared to realise this, however, and righted it before it became obvious.

"You're correct, of course," she said without inflection. She got up from the desk and Zak took a couple of steps towards her before he stopped and dropped his hands into a clasp behind his back. "It is a creature created entirely on a concept devised by myself; a genetic fusion of two existing species in an attempt to create a useful tool towards attaining that which I desire most."

"And I am to assume that this ultimate desire is this Zak Arranda you're so focussed on?" Zak said.

"To a degree. Zak himself is but a means to an end," Alitha said with an absent gesture. "Remember the visions? The reason I seek to obtain Zak is so that together we can draw the galaxy together into a unified force against the unforseen."

"You would have a _Jedi_ assist you in a task so vital?"

"Not willingly, I suppose. But I have my ways of making sure that he cooperates with my wishes." She stopped, and seemed to consider whether to go on. She chose to. "I could, of course, employ these same methods against you, but I chose not to. Cooperation between rivals may not be something that we Sith are known for, but it has been known to happen once or twice in recorded history. I'd hope that mutual cooperation is something that you and I can enjoy, rather than the alternatives."

"As if I seem to have a choice in the matter," Zak mumbled.

"Oh, you do have a choice," Alitha assured him. "You can choose, for example, to walk away right now and want nothing to do with me."

"But the question then becomes what the result of such a choice would be." Zak glowered at her, trying to inject distrust as best he could into his eyes.

Alitha didn't respond, which was all the confirmation that he needed. If he chose to walk away, she would no doubt see that as a defiance of her wishes and attempt to enforce those wishes upon him.

He wasn't sure if she had any more of those genetic monsters that he had seen Tash carrying off the previous day, but he wasn't going to bet that she didn't.

"I see," he said. "I thought as much. And I will repeat myself: you would have a Jedi assist you in such a vital task? Is there something that he can do that I am not, or that others like us are not, capable of?"

"I assure you, that isn't the case at all. Why assume that you wouldn't have been included in my plans to unify the galaxy?"

"You made no mention of it," Zak pointed out stubbornly, showing the arrogance once more. The look she gave him was just as petulant.

Clearly, the need to explain her every action to him was beginning to grind down on her patience. Zak made a mental note to back off slightly, just in case. He soon discovered that such a note was fruitless—he'd just reached her tolerance point.

"I've often asked myself in the time I've known you just what makes you think I need to explain myself to you in the fullest." Zak physically took a step away from her, but it wasn't enough, and she took a step toward him to compensate for the obvious distancing. "And I can think of nothing. Nor can I think of a reason why I should be _expected_ to explain myself. Not to you, and not to anyone else. And I would _expect_ you to follow that reasoning, if you are as intelligent as you claim to be."

"I—" Zak started, genuinely taken aback by the fire in her eyes and the menace in her tone. For the first time since seeing her on the Star Destroyer at Yavin, he truly saw the Sith in her, and he genuinely feared it.

"GET OUT!" she screamed in his face.

Zak wasted no time in retreating from the room, gathering himself into the arrogant posture he expected the Imperials to see him in before he stepped through the door. But he could feel Alitha's rage on the back of his neck as he travelled the depth of the ship to the landing bay and departed.

Having just witnessed the real Alitha in all her glory, he felt genuine fear for those he cared about. As he raced from the ship and across the spaceport to the city, one objective repeated itself over and over in his mind.

He had to see if his sister was OK.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

_**VISITOR HOUSING COMPLEX; YAMA NTO**_

When Zak arrived at the apartment, he saw it empty, devoid of life. It was all he could do not to take it as an omen of things he'd missed during his time aboard the Star Destroyer.

Standing alone in the main area of the apartment, he closed his eyes and reached out towards the spaceport, hoping to find some sign of her.

He was surprised to sense that the _Silent Hunter_ was gone.

He was all alone.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

_**IMPERIUM VICTORY DESTROYER:**_** NIGHT SKY**_**; YAYA NTO SPACEPORT, NAVII LYA PRIME**_

The board bleeped.

Instantly, Lieutenant Derrick Hanson's attention was drawn back to it from his boredom and he punched in a series of commands to bring up the scans.

Another ship was entering low orbit of Navii Lya Prime and into a landing cycle. Such a thing might have just been logged and ignored by another officer, but what drew Hanson's attention were the readings he was getting from the shuttle.

Since the _Night Sky_'s landing on the dusty world of Navii Lya Prime, Derrick Hanson had fulfilled his duties as sensors officer to the best of his ability. And in that regard, he was entitled to some suspicion. His current duties were to scan each and every ship coming to and going from the planet for anything that might interest his commanders or his Empress.

So he felt entirely justified in calling the ship's XO to the bridge to hear a report. He opened a channel to the war room, where she had said she would be, and requested her presence.

She was on the bridge in minutes. When she spotted him, she descended the stairs to the lower deck and hovered behind him, awaiting the report he'd promised her.

"I believe, ma'am," he started hesitantly, turning in his chair to look up at her, "that I have discovered something that as yet defies credible explanation and is worthy of your attention."

"Continue," Lieutenant-Commander Taren replied briskly. Hanson knew that she had more important matters to attend to, so he wasted no time in making sure that he hooked her attention.

He turned back to his console and brought up the scans of several ships he'd scanned approaching and departing the planet. Each scan was represented by a schematic-like image as well as a holographed image and readouts of the ships' energy signatures, configurations, armaments and defences.

If Commander Taren saw the similarities from where she stood, she made no word of it, clearly waiting for Hanson to continue.

So he did. "Each of these ships has been scanned in the time that we've been present on Navii Lya, and I have confirmation of similar scans of these same ships from the orbiting battle group," he started. "At first glance, they're not much to look at. They have no markings that stand out; their identification tags raise no red flags in fleet records. A couple of them appear to be nothing more than cargo haulers with minimal defences, while another appears to be an Old Republic service troop transport and yet another appears to be a private shuttle registered to one of the Hutt syndicates."

"I gather there's a point to be made and that you're not wasting my time because you have a death wish?" Taren said evenly.

"Yes, ma'am," Hanson said, swallowing hard.

"Then get on with it," Taren said waspishly. "I have matters to attend to for Her Highness."

"I ran detailed scans of each of the ships, ma'am, and none of them make sense." He turned around to face her and saw that she had an eyebrow cocked in an expression of mildest interest. "The energy signatures for each of the ships don't correspond to the type of ship it is and its systems output. They are significantly higher. And the degree by which it's higher than it should be is the same for each ship. When I scanned the navigational paths, I found some other discrepancies."

Taren brought her hands to rest on her hips and thrust her hip to the side—what Hanson knew to be her more-than-interested-so-please-continue stance. "What sort of discrepancies?"

"As any fleet officer knows, the navigational deflector of any type of ship is used to deter special hazards from the flight path—micro singularities and meteoroids, galactic dust, etcetera."

"Yes." She nodded.

"For two of these ships, the deflector has been more or less adequate. On one, the deterrent field was several microns too small for its class, and for the other it was at least a dozen too large. For the other ships, the field is noticeably too large for the ship."

"But again, in all cases, the size of the field being projected is exactly the same." She'd guessed this from his track of information, of course, but it still stung him a little that she hadn't waited for him to announce it for himself. However, he nodded without showing his annoyance.

"I detected a new ship just minutes ago, entering the planet's atmosphere on a landing approach already approved by the spaceport's authorities. The deflector field on this ship is a third of the size of the ship too small, and yet the ship is in pristine condition."

"Bring up the recordings," Taren ordered him.

He swivelled in his seat again, ignoring the interested looks from nearby officers who seemed to have temporarily forgotten both their duties and a senior officer was present. He punched up the records and readouts of the ship that had caught his attention moments before.

"That is a Hapes cruise ship, Lieutenant. The Hapans would have no ties to anyone or any organisation in this sector, and there's about as good a chance that they would sell one of their ships to a criminal element as Mustafar has of sprouting an ice pack." Taren mused for a while, mumbling her musings very quietly to herself that Hanson could hear the sound, but not the words her lips formed. His back remained to her, awaiting instructions.

"This is a very … odd occurrence," she said aloud after a couple of minutes.

"Orders, ma'am?"

"Keep an eye on it. If these readings show up again, don't call for me or any other senior officer, tractor the ship responsible to the main hanger and have a heavily armed security team sent to greet its inhabitants at once."

"Yes, ma'am," Hanson said, and he went to work archiving his findings and setting his sensors on a continual sweep.

"Something about this sounds … somewhat familiar, somehow," Taren said quietly. Then she turned on her heel and strode away without another word.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

_**VISITOR HOUSING COMPLEX; YAMA NTO**_

Zak had been having an oddly pleasant dream of being back on Alderaan with Tash and his mother and father when he was startled to awareness.

The door to the apartment was thrown open and someone stomped in.

Whoever it was, they were in a deeply foul, deeply guilty mood, and whoever it was strode across the apartment and down the hall towards the room he and Jaina had shared.

When his door was opened, it was with much less force than the entrance to the apartment, and it was to reveal his sister. She was dirt-faced with a scowl so fierce it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and sent a chill racing up his spine.

He pushed up from the bed and stood beside it, his hands by his sides and his eyes locked on Tash's as her scowl began to drain from her face. By the time it was gone, she was almost in tears, and Zak raced to her side and eased her down onto the bed. He did his utmost not to steal her thoughts from her, instead consoling himself to read what was bothering her by the expression on her face and the look in her eyes.

"What happened?" he asked her gently, checking her over for injuries. She seemed unhurt, which meant that it was someone else that had been hurt.

He already knew as much, though, from that horrible, pained screaming in his head. Jaina's screaming. It had to be Jaina that had been hurt.

The thought sent a chill up his spine and he shuddered as he waited for his sister to reply. Surely Jaina was alright. He knew that she had been hurt in some way, but she was a capable young woman, and he hadn't thought it to be anything too serious. But seeing his sister in the state she was in now planted the seeds of doubt in his mind and he had to force himself not to panic.

Tash looked up at him, and her first words confirmed his deep fears. "I'm sorry, little brother," she sobbed. "I tried … I really tried …" The sentence died and she swiped the tears from her face and threw her arms around him.

"Tash," he said softly, stroking her hair and just letting her sob on his shoulder for a moment.

She pulled away suddenly and swiped again at her tear-stained face and sniffed. "I really tried," she said softly. "I—"

"It would help if I knew what happened," Zak said evenly, a gentle hand against her cheek and a small smile on his face to try and put her at ease. He realised that all that time spent with Luke Skywalker had rubbed some of the elder Jedi's behavioural patterns off onto him. He was becoming just as compassionate as the older Jedi.

Tash gave him a look that told him she didn't know if he wanted to hear what she had to say, a look that told him that she thought he would never forgive her. She pulled a lightsaber out of her robes and handed it to him.

Zak knew without looking whose it was. He'd first handled the lightsaber when he and its owner had been abducted from Yavin 4 by the Sith known as Pravus … or Brakiss as the Solos knew him. He'd used it several times since in mock-duels with its owner so she could train with his own double-bladed weapon, which she'd expressed interest in doing.

He would know the feel of the lightsaber if he were blind. He knew the sleek contours and soft grip; the cold metals. It was Jaina's.

For but a moment, his heart stopped. Though, it was only for a moment, for that was all the time it took for him to remember that Jaina was not dead. Hurt, yes, but not dead.

Or was she?

Why else would Tash be so distraught when she knew the wonders the medical droids on the _Corellian Glory_ could do?

But it didn't make sense for that to be the case. He could sense Jaina's pain, so he was sure he would sense it if she'd died. Their connection would have been severed, and it was currently not. Empty, but not severed. She was unconscious, even comatose perhaps, but not dead.

"What happened?" he asked his sister again, placing his hands gently on her shoulders to steady her.

He poured some of his calm into her mind telepathically, knowing that she would need as much as she could get a hold of.

He sensed that she had only broken down because she was afraid of how _he_ would react.

"We were walking around the bazaar," Tash started slowly. She swallowed heavily, took a couple of breaths, and continued. "A siren went off. The locals told us it was a sandstorm warning."

"You missed it. It hit when you were back aboard the _Glory_," Zak said. Quickly, he tucked his left arm behind his back so that his sister wouldn't spot the abrasions formed from his time out in the storm—time he'd spent willingly, as an exercise of how long he could keep up a Force shield against the storm before it wore down.

Evidently; for almost the whole length of the storm until his concentration slipped.

"We were heading back," Tash said. She gulped again. Zak sat down beside her and gently rubbed up and down her back; something he knew instinctively from their years of running that would calm her when she was so hysterical. "Something attacked us. It wasn't human. Not quite. It was … almost reptilian … almost humanoid. Allina said it was some kind of genetic creation that trollop Alitha made. It attacked us. We tried to fight it off. But Jaina—"

She choked on the last word and Zak drew her in close so that she could lean her head against his shoulder. "It bit her, Zak. It clawed at her and it bit her, and it tried to rip her apart."

"Is she OK?" he asked, barely able to form the words in his mind, let alone from his lips.

Tash hesitated, and then nodded her head once. "Geesev got her stabilised and Jacen is providing a transfusion for the amount of blood she lost, but Zak …" She stopped and looked up into his eyes, tears glistening and threatening to overflow. "She's in a bad way."

Zak forced down his own tears, his own anguished sob. Tash needed comfort right now. He couldn't afford for them both to be sobbing hysterically. Jaina would be OK. That was the main thing he had to remind himself of. She would be OK. He just wished he could be with her.

"I should go up there," he said softly. "Alitha be damned! I need to be by her side."

"And what about Allina?" Tash said almost resentfully.

Zak knew that Tash and Allina were on good terms. The resent she held in check was towards the fact that now Zak had to choose between where he wanted to be and where he should be. Jaina would be OK. Allina wouldn't.

"You can't just condemn her like that. She may have given up, but you shouldn't."

Zak closed his eyes and took a breath. He steadied himself and reached out to the _Glory_, to Jaina and Allina, to their life forces.

Allina's was fading quickly, much more rapidly than he'd witnessed before he, Tash and Jaina had departed for the planet. She was slipping away from them too fast. Too fast. Jaina was stable, but … different.

"Tell me," he started slowly, "what's happening to Jaina."

She swallowed. "She's changing." Zak frowned and Tash cringed, expecting an attack. But she continued. "According to Allina, the creature that attacked us has a genetic instability that causes its genetic code to transfer to the victim through its salivary glands and mutate. It changes the bitten into another hybrid. Allina thinks it was probably an intended side effect—that it was created specifically to do this to you."

"And Alitha would do that because?"

"The creature was created using Hssiss DNA," Tash said quietly.

Zak started.

Hssiss were dangerous as pure creatures. For the most part, they had been chosen as pets by Sith and other darksiders because they were deadly; often mauling their victims beyond recognition if not devouring or completely tearing them to unrecognisable shreds.

But to those that survived, and had been bitten by the Hssiss, they suffered from the side effect of becoming completely susceptible to the will of the dark side.

If Zak had been bitten by an Hssiss under Alitha's control, and survived, he would have been at her beck and call. He could only assume that Alitha, in creating the bastardised hybrid that had attacked Tash and Jaina, had done all she could to retain that capability in the experiment.

If this thing had bitten him, he would be just as helpless to her will, and he would have become one himself.

He shuddered at the thought. Now he knew what "other methods" she'd mentioned as a means to control him if he didn't cooperate with her.

He shoved the thought aside and turned back to Tash. "Then why did it attack the two of you?"

"I have no idea," Tash said. "Maybe because you told Alitha that you weren't here, and that you were only following us. Maybe she thought to offer her thing a meal to keep it happy in the meantime and saw us as opportune targets."

"I will _kill _that woman!" Zak hissed. He swore, realisation sinking in that, in a way, he was responsible for Jaina's condition.

Always, he was putting those around him in peril. And twice now, he had hurt Jaina!

Wait.

Twice?

"It's not your fault, little brother," Tash assured him.

"If I'd told her I was here, she would have held back," he said.

"Or she would have ordered it on the grounds that it would bring you out into the open looking for her."

"Tash—"

"Zak, stop beating yourself up for things that happen to her. You can't blame yourself for every little thing. Things happen, and we move past them. She'll pull through this."

And yet, despite the comforting words of his sister, and the reassuring feeling of Jaina's living presence in the bond he shared with her, Zak couldn't help but continue to loathe his actions. Only a moment ago, he'd considered that perhaps Luke Skywalker's mannerisms were beginning to rub off on him. In actual fact, he'd been wrong. Luke would never have put others in danger the way he had. Luke would never have hurt those he loved.

And that was how Zak knew he would never be as good as the Grand Master.

Never.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

_**SICK BAY, OBSERVATION WARD; NEW REPUBLIC STAR DESTROYER:**_** CORELLIAN GLORY**

Awareness slowly crept its way into her mind over an unknown length of time. The first sign of regaining consciousness was the sound of a steady, rhythmic beep. She recognised it as the sound of medical sensor designed to monitor heart rates. She grew accustomed to the hypnotising beat it bleeped into the darkness, but she couldn't recognise the pace that it kept.

She pushed it out of her mind.

The next signs were the sensation of dulled light beating weightlessly against her eyelids and the various scents from the room she was in.

It took her no time at all to deduce that she was in an infirmary of some kind—most likely on the _Corellian Glory_, judging by how sterile it smelled.

When she finally cracked her eyelids open to look around, she noticed that the sights around her were very slightly blurred, as if she looked at them through a thin layer of plasteel. She looked around and noticed that she was on her back on a bio bed, and that there was a single medical droid hovering near a bench along the wall, sifting through blood and skin samples it had collected. A medical sensor apparatus was attached to the head of the bio bed on which she lay, monitoring _her_ vitals.

She frowned instantly, remembering the unrecognisable pace of the heart beat it monitored and knowing that it couldn't possibly be hers.

She parted her lips just enough to slip her tongue through to lick them, and in doing so she noticed that she could _taste_ the air, and all the scents it carried. She frowned again and darted her tongue back into the air for a second to take the scents in again.

She could taste the scents of the samples the droid was examining—samples that had been taken from her. She could taste the metallic tang of the droid and all the other plated equipment in the infirmary.

There was also the scent of—what?—emotion? Fear. Worry. Uncertainty. This confused her. While instinct told her that those were the feelings she could taste in the air, she didn't know how it was at all possible.

Humans couldn't _taste_ emotion. Humans couldn't even taste scents, for that matter.

Memory stirred, and she delved to recall what had last happened to her. It came as clearly as if it had happened only moments ago.

Something had attacked her and Tash on Navii Lya Prime. While she knew she was now back aboard the _Corellian Glory_, and it stood to reason that it had been Tash who had transported her back up to the ship, she had no memory of it happening.

She didn't even know how long ago it had happened. It was unusual for her. Always, she'd been very aware of the passage of time even in times of unconsciousness. It was a new experience for her to have lost time and had no sense of how much had been lost.

There was movement to her left, which alerted her to the fact that someone sat beside her. She smiled, which felt unusually awkward, and turned her head to look into her brother's familiar brown eyes.

She'd known it was Jacen by the smell of his skin and hair, by the train of his thoughts trickling dully into her mind, and by the sound of the throbbing pulse of his blood stream safely concealed beneath flesh.

"Jacen," she said with a smile. It came out as a sort of hiss and she frowned, confused.

"Jaina." Jacen didn't seem to be overly happy. In fact, the emotions she'd tasted earlier seemed to be coming from him, and directed at her. "How do you feel?" The words weren't entirely hollow.

"I don't know," she said. She looked around again, and narrowed her eyes to try and focus out the blur that was distracting her. "How do I look?"

"You've … erm … looked better, sis," Jacen said hesitantly.

Jaina didn't trust that hesitation. It took great effort, greater effort than it normally should have, to delve into his thoughts and look upon herself through his eyes.

She gasped, audibly, and her concentration snapped. Looking up at her brother, she saw the grim expression and knew his words before he spoke them.

"You're … a little different," he said quietly. "For the moment, that is."

"_For the_ _moment_?" Jaina screeched. "The _moment_, Jacen? What the hell is that supposed to mean? What the hell happened to me? Where's Uncle Luke? Where's Tash? Where's—"

Then it hit her.

Zak was on Navii Lya Prime, with Alitha, pretending he was someone he wasn't. And he didn't have any backup if she found out that he was lying to her. Even if Tash was down there, he would still be outmatched by her.

"Zak's fine," Jacen assured her. There was a lack of conviction behind his words that Jaina didn't find at all reassuring and she glared at him, unable to filter out the base emotions of frustration and anger like she should have been able to. "Tash is also fine. She went back down there not too long after we brought you back up here."

"'_We_'?"

"I'd just arrived to talk to you both about Allina's condition when Tash brought you to me and told me what had happened. Don't you remember that? We got you and that … thing … back here."

"You brought it here?" Jaina's eyes darted back and forth and she pushed herself up from the bed and swung her legs off the side. "Whoa," she said, dizzy from the suddenness of the movement.

She shook the sensation from her head and pushed off.

There was a clacking as her feet hit the floor, and she looked down. Scaly growths had started forming along her torso and down her legs to her feet. Both of her feet looked like they were entirely scale, rather than flesh, while her legs looked somewhere halfway along. The left side of her chest was also fleshless and the growth continued down to her left leg and across her belly to her right.

Holding her hands out in front of her, she saw that her fingers had become sharp, deadly looking claws, and that there were equally lethal looking spines growing from her forearms. The leathery-scaly growth continued up her right arm to only about the elbow joint, while it continued up the left arm to the shoulder and merged with the growths on her chest.

She blinked; the first blink she could recall since first opening her eyes.

She turned to face Jacen and saw him turn away from her. However, she sensed, it wasn't due to what she looked like. She half-smiled and stripped the covers from the bio bed to wrap around herself. When she tied it off, she cleared her throat to get his attention.

"How long?" she asked him.

"Nearly a week."

"A week?" she exclaimed, once again allowing her anger to slip by her. She still couldn't explain such a loss of time. "And just what has been going on in that week that I should have been made aware of?" she demanded harshly.

"Nothing," Jacen replied forcefully. He stood up and stepped around the edge of the bed to stand before her, waving off the approach of the medical unit.

Jaina shot a quick glance over her shoulder to see the almost human look of exasperation in the way the machine tilted its head and the level of illumination in its photoreceptors.

"Go up to the bridge and get Uncle Luke, will you, Geesev?" Jacen asked by way of dismissal.

"Mistress Solo's condition is my primary concern at this time, Master Solo," Geesev replied matter-of-factly.

"Jaina will be fine for the length of time it takes to get to the bridge, inform my uncle that she's awake, and then return with him," Jacen pointed out. "You and your counterpart assured me of the stability of her condition. Now go, please, before I give in to the urge to temporarily deactivate you so that we can have some privacy."

Geesev didn't move for almost a minute; just continued to hover there, shifting his gaze from one Solo to the other and Jaina found herself wishing that droids were as susceptible to influences of the mind as near-humans were. But after that moment, he seemed to realise that he was out of his element, for his vocal processors released a sigh of defeat and he drifted away from them towards the door.

When he was gone, and the door was once again closed, Jacen turned back to Jaina and forced a smile while gesturing to the bio bed—a subtle sign that she should sit.

So she did.

"What's been going on, Jacen?" she asked calmly. "And don't you tell me 'nothing', because I know you better than that and you can't lie to me!"

Now, it was Jacen's turn to sigh. Jaina took it as a sign that he was only putting up a token resistance—which was something he often did to toy with her. It always annoyed her when he did that, but she bit down on her tongue with teeth that felt razor sharp to stop herself from chewing him out for it this time.

"Zak's been sending reports. He's close to discovering something, he thinks. He was granted access to the Imperium's records a couple of days ago when he expressed a certain degree of ignorance and disbelief towards some of Alitha's policies and strategies—or something to that effect; I forget exactly what it was. For the most part, he's been doing as he should in her eyes. But when he's not looking at the boring propaganda, he's been surreptitiously digging through the more _interesting_ information for anything of value to us or even to the Republic."

"Good news. How soon does he hope to have the girl's cure?" Jaina asked. Again the hostility towards Allina rose, and again she bit down on it. It was only another of many instances since the girl had led a successful invasion of the Yavin system and forced the Jedi Praxeum into exile.

"He says within the next couple of days," Jacen said. However, apparently her hostile feelings towards Allina did not go unnoticed. "And you have _the girl_ to thank for you being … you."

"Oh, so I have her to thank for this?" Jaina held up her right hand to show off the claws and the spines and the changes to her flesh and scowled.

"No, for that you have Alitha to thank," Jacen said. "But it was Allina that recognised the creature that attacked you and it was Allina that warned us what would happen to you if we did nothing about it."

"And what _would_ have happened, Jacen?"

"You would have become exactly like it," Jacen said evenly. Jaina blinked again. "Glad you recognise the seriousness of that," he added with a grin. "But becoming like it means these mutations of yours would have become much worse, and quite irreversible, and you would have lost all sense of self, and all sense of control."

"A slave to the trollop who created that thing in the first place," Jaina muttered. Jacen nodded. "But how does that automatically point to Allina as my saviour?"

Again, Jacen hesitated, and Jaina had to once more expend great effort into reaching into his mind just enough to feel the guilt and the sadness he felt. "Allina input all the information needed to create two important serums onto a sheet of flimsiplast for Geesev and his counterpart to work on."

"Two?"

"One to stop the mutation before it got to the irreversible stages," Jacen said, "and one to reverse the present mutations altogether."

"You mean that the new look isn't permanent?" Jaina quizzed, suddenly uplifted.

"Not at all. You should be looking normal again within a month, possibly less." Jacen was beaming as he said this, but Jaina could see no cause for such glee. She was still going to have to look the way she was for that length of time; a prospect she found wholly undesirable.

And there was still the matter of Jacen's guilt and sadness. "By your feelings, I'm going to assume that it didn't come without a price?"

This time, his hesitation was enough to answer her question for her. Jaina tried to pry her way into his thoughts again to ascertain just what price had been paid for such a cure to her condition, but Jacen was blocking her with what felt like no effort.

It was that that led Jaina to realise that her current mutations were dulling her own connection to the Force. It stood to reason such a thing would happen. If Alitha had thought to turn that creature on Zak and turn him to make him a slave to her will, she wouldn't have wanted to take the risk that he could himself call upon the Force and turn against her. If anything, his powers would have been controlled by Alitha.

But she wondered just what kind of price could have been paid for her condition.

Surely, Allina couldn't be dead? With how connected with the Living Force that Jacen was, and how much compassion he'd shown the girl, he surely would have taken the hit harder than was evident on his face at present.

"Allina's in cryo stasis," Jacen said. He looked down at the floor at those words and continued without prompt. "She insisted that it be her that do the calculations. She wouldn't let one of us just pick the thoughts from her mind. But in doing the work herself, she greatly accelerated the rate at which she's deteriorating. We thought we had another week before we lost her, but we now only have two days. If Zak can't find something before then …"

"Then we lose Allina," Jaina finished for him.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

_**IMPERIUM VICTORY DESTROYER:**_** NIGHT SKY**_**; YAYA NTO SPACEPORT, NAVII LYA PRIME**_

Alitha quietly sipped from her glass of Corellian brandy as she watched the surveillance screens along the walls. Each screen depicted security logs from all across the ship; logs that all had one thing in common, one sole interest: Varad Torani.

As per her orders, security station two on board the destroyer had been devoted entirely to tracking the disagreeable would-be-Sith visitor's movements throughout the ship and the spaceport.

The reason for such heavy surveillance of their new and unexpected guest wasn't because she didn't trust him—she didn't. Trust had no place in her world. But she had an instinct that nagged at the furthest corners of her mind that told her that Torani was hiding something. She didn't like it when secrets were being kept from her, especially from those she considered to be beneath her and subject to her will.

But thus far, he was the only person whose interests coincided with hers that had managed to keep her out of his thoughts. He was younger than her—though not by much—but he had a strength about him that was surprising and formidable. Still, she was confident in her abilities and she knew that eventually, she would wear his defences down and take what she wanted.

Until then, normal, uninteresting intelligence would have to suffice.

She turned her attention to one of the screens along the wall to her left. It was only a few hours old, according to the time stamps, and had occurred in the ship's limited detention blocks.

Torani was in the eastern hall strolling past each exposed, yet ray shielded, cell at the inhabitants, and completely ignoring the unshielded and empty ones.

From the surveillance device's angle, Alitha was unable to catch the look on the man's face. She frowned as she watched him stop at the end of the hall and turn his head to look at the occupied cell's inhabitant.

She saw the beginnings of a scowl forming before he turned his face forward again and completely out of the camera's sight. She sipped again from her brandy and watched as Torani stood there for several minutes, hands clasped behind his back and shoulders tense. Then he abruptly turned on his heel and departed the detention block.

Alitha thought about what she'd just seen for a moment. While Zak had only spared a couple of seconds to glance into the cell at its occupant, he'd spent enough time standing there to have been engaging in a full conversation with them. She wasn't stupid; there was no chance that Torani had only been standing there for the novelty of it. He _had_ to have been talking to whoever occupied that cell. So her next question became obvious, and so did the implications behind it.

"Who was he talking to?" she asked the officer on duty. He was a young lieutenant, freshly promoted, by the name of Edrid Suzal.

Alitha could sense the potential for command material in the young man. Why he worked in security instead was beyond her, especially considering when the _Medusa_ was rebuilt, its new commander was going to need a good first officer.

Lieutenant Suzal made a quick motion with his hand. Only those with fast eyes, or the Force, would have seen that he had in fact entered a command in the control board in front of him. A detainee profile came into focus on the screen in front of him.

"Cell CYN119," Suzal read from the information displayed in front of him. "An as yet unidentified New Republic Intelligence agent." He looked over his shoulder at Alitha as he continued. "She's been a member of the crew for about seven years, but has secretly been a spy for the New Republic for that entire length of time. Her duplicity was discovered by Lieutenant-Commander Taren just a couple of months ago, but we have thus far obtained no information from her."

"Republic Intelligence agents aren't likely to give up their identities so easily." Alitha fingered her chin in thought and released a disappointed sigh.

Suzal nodded a confirmation and returned his attention to the screen. "Commander Taren was able to deduce the spy's true loyalties when she noticed some unauthorised maintenance cycles to the long range comm. system during an authorised maintenance cycle she was supervising. Coupled with too-infrequent leaves of absence from the ship to deal with what was termed 'personal family issues', the commander concluded she had grounds to hold her for questioning while techs went over the spy's doctored biography for inconsistencies."

"What does it say down the bottom in the security notice appendix?" Alitha asked, unable exactly to see it over the lieutenant's shoulder. She sipped again from the brandy and sighed as it warmed her throat.

"There is … legal issue with the arrest. As the spy was arrested by Commander Taren, the legal aide on temporary assignment from Alzoc 3 has advised that you would have to make the final judgement on the legitimacy of the arrest. There seems to be … a conflict of interest."

"Conflict of interest?" Alitha cocked an eyebrow and considered the implications. "But that would mean—"

"Commander Taren has intimate knowledge of the accused." Alitha scowled. She didn't like to be interrupted, especially by a subordinate. The young officer paled visibly under her stare and remained quiet.

"I shall have words with her about this issue," she said quietly to herself. "Has anyone spoken to the prisoner as to our guest's apparent interest in her?"

"Interest, My Lady?"

"Mister Torani was standing by her cell for several minutes," Alitha reminded him. "We have no audio attached to our surveillance devices—which I believe is the severest of oversights—and his back was turned to the cameras, so we are unable to deduce from lip-reading what he was saying to her."

"Uh, no, My Lady," the lieutenant said, a little off guard. "I thought that you might want to deal with that yourself. She is, after all, a high profile prisoner, and as a member of New Republic Intelligence, she would be less susceptible to conventional means of coercion."

"Smart man," Alitha praised. Suzal didn't even blink at the commendation, but kept a stony face. "I—"

She was interrupted, _again_, by the opening of the security room's door and the entrance of just the person they had been talking about.

"Varad!" Alitha said, immediately switching from contemplative to welcoming. He flinched at the address and stopped just inside the room and looked around.

When he saw the young lieutenant at station, he narrowed his eyes and jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the door. "Out," he ordered.

Suzal began spluttering protests, but was silenced by Alitha raising a hand and nodding for him to do as he'd been instructed. He entered a quick command into the control board, retrieved his databook and stylus, and left without a word.

"Well," Alitha said with a grin, "quite imposing this afternoon, aren't we?"

"I don't have time to mix words with you today, Alitha," he said plainly, slapping the door controls and waiting for it to snap shut behind him. He eyed the glass in her hand.

"Would you like one?"

"Depends on the date," he replied.

"Thirty-eight Before Yavin. There is no finer vintage to date." Alitha turned around to the refreshments table behind her and yanked the stopper out of a crystal decanter of amber-brown liquid.

She poured a generous serving into a spare glass and handed it to him. Almost the second it was in his hand, he brought it to his lips and drained half of it before lowering it again and smacking his lips in what she sensed was genuine appreciation.

"You were right. It _is_ good." He sidestepped to the security control board and placed the glass down on the edge, as far from the controls as he could, and then looked back to her. "We need to talk."

"Yes," she said plainly. "We do. Starting with what you were doing at the detention block earlier today and just what business you had to discuss with a New Republic spy."

She sensed shock from him for a moment. But it lasted only a moment and he managed to compose himself very quickly. She tried again to penetrate his defences, and found herself unable.

Torani stared her down for a moment, assessing her as he felt and ignored her attempted intrusiveness upon his mind. She allowed none of her frustration at the lack of success to show either in her thoughts or in her expression, but she knew that he was wholly aware of it. Perhaps it was why he was keeping her out in the first place; not to hide something, but to prove that he could do such a thing.

"That she was a spy was exactly why I was there," he said confidently. "I saw no one interrogating her, and that she was wholly in possession of her inner strengths. Wouldn't it be a priority to be breaking her of that so that she will start revealing some important information about our enemies?"

"Priority, yes," Alitha said. "But what makes you think I haven't already just plucked the knowledge straight from her treacherous mind?"

Torani smirked, a look that didn't quite suit him. "If you had you wouldn't be so standoffish about me talking to her. And you wouldn't be worried about me finding out something from her that you wouldn't have already and then mind rubbing her so that only I have that information."

Alitha scowled. He was right, to a degree. But it was still highly suspicious of him to have been talking to the spy at all.

"What business did you have to discuss with me?" she said, changing the topic.

"An idea," Torani said unblinkingly, "if you'll amuse me."

"I grow tiresome of your amusement," Alitha said. "But something tells me that this idea of yours is something I'm going to enjoy just as much. Pray tell?"

"It occurs to me that we seem to have an opportunity in our midst, and that it hasn't been acted upon for quite some time." Alitha cocked an eyebrow by way of interest and he continued. "The Arranda girl—why do we not seize her? It seems to me that if you plan on capturing her brother, _she_ would be the most logical bait to use."

"True," Alitha replied with a slow nod, "but she is hardly here alone. Jaina Solo is also here, as may there be more of their comrades. You would seek to aggravate them all by making a play for her?"

"About that …" Torani picked up his glass and took a sip from it before setting it down again. He looked back up at her. "I've been going over the scouting and surveillance reports from your teams on the ground for the past week. Something that I had to get access to myself since, for some _unknown_ reason, I was barred access."

"When I grant you access to our security and surveillance, it will be at a time of my choosing," Alitha hissed. She was angry that he was once more pushing his limits with her. She had to remind herself that she needed his assistance if she was ever to succeed in acquiring Zak.

"Regardless," Torani pressed with a dismissive wave that fuelled her anger, "I went over them. It appears that Miss Solo has neither been seen nor heard from in the better part of a week."

The coincidence clicked instantly and Alitha took a half-step forward. "Not since Tash eliminated my hybrid." Torani nodded, a sly grin creeping over his face. "But there have also been no reports of anyone matching her description in any of the planet-side medical facilities. If she'd been incapacitated by the creature before its death, one would assume there would be. Unless …"

"Unless they have a ship somewhere in the system that has a medical facility equipped to treat her … or autopsy her if that be the case."

"No ships leave the spaceport unless the spaceport authorities clear it through the bridge of this ship first," Alitha pointed out. "And to my knowledge, no Republic registered ships have left or even approached the planet. They'd only have access to such ships."

Torani frowned slightly, as if recalling a memory, and then replied; "Now, I _do_ have access to some of the bridge systems," he said. "Minutes before we saw Tash with your hybrid, an old, privately owned Imperial assault shuttle left the spaceport. It was unmarked, but registered to one of the Dug syndicates. Not too long afterwards, another ship was authorised to leave the spaceport. It appeared to be a cargo hauler, following the exact trajectory of the assault shuttle for as long as either remained in orbital sensor range."

"You think that they transported Jaina back to the ship under our very noses?" Alitha's other eyebrow joined its partner. "A daring move, for them all to return at once. But then, if Zak is aboard such a larger vessel, he'd want to see evidence that his sister was unharmed."

"And if he's not down here with them, it begs the question: what are they doing here in the first place?"

"That, my friend, is an interesting question. One we will have to ask Tash when we … catch up with her."

She paused and topped up her brandy. When she offered Torani the same, he turned it down and drained the last of the amber liquid from his glass before using the Force to place it down on the table behind her just as she was setting down the decanter.

"Moreover, if Tash has returned, as your scouts seem to be able to confirm she has, then she's vulnerable."

"In more ways than one. If Jaina was seriously injured by my hybrid—or even killed—Tash would blame herself entirely. She would be in a state of guilty despair and the last thing she would expect would be a visit from us."

"Us?" Torani said, his own eyebrows arching slowly. "You intend to actually include me? I was planning to follow you regardless anyway, but I must say that this is a surprising turnabout."

"It was, after all, your idea," Alitha reminded him. "And seen as though you've personally encountered her much more recently than I, I think a visit from the both of us would be a little more than she could deal with right now."

Torani smiled, and Alitha relished the thought as she drained her glass in a single hit. She wondered what Tash would say to them rocking up on her doorstep, found she didn't entirely care, and returned Torani's smile.

This day was about to get all the more interesting.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

_**VISITOR HOUSING COMPLEX; YAMA NTO**_

Tash was weary from a long day. For most of the week she'd utterly refused to leave Navii Lya Prime, not until Zak was safe and away from the clutches of the mad woman Alitha.

But she spent a lot of that time alone. Zak had acquired visiting quarters on the Star Destroyer, and as such spent most of his time there. He occasionally stopped by the apartment to let Tash know he was still in one piece, but he didn't stay for very long.

She knew why, though. Imperials were in the city, and no doubt had spies everywhere. He was lucky none of his visits had been noticed yet.

Still, it wasn't just the day that had her weary. Her heart was still heavy with the guilt of the attack on Jaina. She'd been advised not to attempt a return to the _Corellian Glory_ until Zak had finished his task. He warned her that the Imperials had stepped up security in regards to departures and arrivals, and he didn't want her getting caught up in the middle of it. So, as a result, she had no idea whether or not Jaina was still … Jaina.

And yet, something about this whole thing made her uneasy. Something about remaining on Navii Lya made her skin crawl in ways she hadn't experienced before. And to make matters worse, she couldn't sense Zak at all anymore.

She decided that she needed to forget about all the possible negative outcomes of the mission. She needed to just sit down, calm down, and trust that her brother was doing the best he could to get the information they needed to save Allina's life.

So she tried.

She got herself a cool drink from the kitchen, and then slumped down heavily on one of the comforters in the apartment's entertaining space. She reached out with her thoughts and switched on the over-large holoscreen against the far wall and flicked through the channels until she came across an old holodrama she'd once been fond of.

At some point, she was aware that she'd fallen asleep, for when she opened her eyes after what could have been called a record-long blink, the holodrama had ended and another had started.

She frowned. Surely, if that was what had woken her, it would have happened during the transition, and not partway through the new vid.

But no, it wasn't that.

Her senses tweaked, warning her of impending danger that she knew not to ignore.

The cup had spilled during her sleep and all the way down her left leg was damp and sticky, and her left foot was planted in a damp patch on the floor of the spilled liquid.

Immediately, she pushed herself up from the chair and began a slow trek through the apartment, lightsaber in hand, looking for threats or anything else that would have triggered her warning.

She found nothing. But the feeling persisted. It was as if her senses knew of something she didn't.

She stopped where she was and closed her eyes. If her senses insisted that something was amiss, she was going to discover what it was. She poured all of her concentration into her instincts and senses of danger until she saw what she wanted: a faint, blurry image of the apartment door blasting inwards.

It was a future event, but so very close to coming to pass.

No sooner had she realised this did she feel the presence outside. It was malevolent, untrustworthy, powerful, and not alone.

The door blasted inwards, spraying her and the main area of the apartment with splinters. Tash looked away and threw her arms up to shield her face from the spray of splinters.

When she looked up again, she saw that there was no more door. Whoever had blown it down had done so with so much force that all that remained of it were the millions of splinters scattered across whatever space they could have reached, including her hair and robes.

White-skeletal-armoured troopers poured through the ruined doorway, bringing their blaster rifles to bear on her chest the instant they had her in sight.

One of them began shouting orders at her, but she gave him no time to finish. She activated her lightsaber in a second and cleaved through the rifle in the trooper's hands before aiming a hard kick to his midsection and following through with a violent club to the faceplate with the butt of her lightsaber.

The stormtrooper stumbled away from her, but another took its place almost immediately. It raised its rifle, took aim and fired a single shot at her which she expertly sidestepped before slashing around with her lightsaber. The blade passed through the rifle as well as the stormtrooper's armour and the trooper grunted as they were slain.

The dead trooper fell to the floor and Tash kicked it away from her before spinning to face three more advancing troopers who were none-too-shy about opening fire on her. She deflected most of the blaster fire back at the aggressors, and dodged the rest as quickly as she could. Three quick slashes and there were three more motionless bodies on the floor of the apartment.

When she spun to face the next attacker, she saw the trooper formation by the door part to allow someone else into the apartment—a superior, no doubt. She backed away a step to increase the distance and waited, lightsaber raised in anticipation of who she would see.

She expected it to be Alitha; expected that Zak had been found out and that she'd tortured him until he'd revealed that Tash was on the planet still, and exactly where she was hiding.

What she saw almost floored her from shock.

Zak entered, but not any Zak that she'd ever seen. She knew it was the Force-generated cosmetic that made him look older than he was, with the sickly yellow of dark side corruption tainting the brown of his eyes. But it was Zak all the same.

In his hand, he held the relatively newly constructed lightsaber he'd borrowed from Allina before leaving the _Corellian Glory_. At present, it remained deactivated, but nonetheless at the ready.

_Attack me_, Tash heard her brother whisper into her thoughts. The message was so subtle that she doubted it had actually come from him at first. _Attack me! Alitha's outside waiting!_

Tash got the message, and the intent behind it. Though he hadn't explained as much, Tash assumed that Zak had run out of ways to distract Alitha and the Imperium while he scavenged information from the Star Destroyer's databanks. She could see the pain in his expression of having led them to her, though she couldn't sense it in his thoughts.

If Zak was telling the truth and Alitha were nearby, there was no doubt that she'd be monitoring his thoughts for signs of weakness or betrayal.

"You!" she hissed with as much false hatred as she could muster on such short notice. It helped to think of Brakiss and how he'd stolen her brother away from her only a couple of short years ago. The anger came easier then, and it was almost genuine.

"Long time, no see," Zak said with a sly grin.

Tash lunged at him, holding back as much as she dared without risking suspicion from the onlookers. She swung wide, far too wide, with her lightsaber, and Zak had Allina's lightsaber activated and in the path of hers long before it reached him. He shoved and she backpedalled to take another swing at him, which he deftly deflected with a snicker.

"So weak," he said.

Tash frowned and threw her hand out in front of herself. The wave of Force energies lashed out towards Zak. It was more powerful than she'd intended and knocked the surrounding troopers violently against the walls, rendering them unconscious.

Zak seemed to have expected it, however, and pushed back with enough force to reverse the path of the attack. When it hit Tash, it wasn't as strong as she'd directed it, but it was enough to send her flying over the comforter and into the wall behind.

She hit flat, bumping her head. The impact blurred her sight, rendered her dizzy, and she struggled back to her feet as best she could.

There was a sound, distorted through her concussive confusion. It sounded like … applause? Alitha!

"Well done," a voice said from outside. It was soon followed by a woman in an outfit Tash could never see herself wearing.

It looked like tight, deep violet leather, and it revealed too much skin and figure for her liking. Pinned to the shoulders with silver fastenings was a long black cape that swept out elegantly behind her and outwards to a clip looped around the middle finger of her left hand. Hanging from that side of her hip was a lightsaber.

Despite the years since Tash had seen the ebon-haired beauty last, there was no mistaking her. Especially not now that she knew that Alitha had murdered hers and Zak's shape shifting uncle. The image of her had forever been burned into Tash's mind.

"Alitha!" she hissed groggily.

Alitha chuckled at her, amused that she'd been rendered more or less harmless. Her concentration slackened and the lightsaber slipped from her hand and clattered to the floor.

"Pathetic," Alitha jeered. "You have done well, my apprentice," she added to Zak.

Through the haze of her vision, Tash could swear she saw the hateful look Zak shot her at those words. But that was the last thing she remembered before she lost consciousness.

* * *

She awoke to darkness some time later, though how much time had actually passed she couldn't say at first. She was still disoriented from Zak's impromptu attack on her, and she soon realised that the darkness before her seemed just as unnatural, just as false as her brother's attack.

She reached out with her senses.

She was in a cell. She could feel the walls, cold and constricting. The door was solid durasteel and reinforced by a ray shield on either side. Oddly enough, she could feel nothing directly beyond the doorway for quite a ways, or the other walls of the cell. It was as if the cell's surroundings had been insulated from the Force, but the cell itself was entirely open to it—no doubt, she assumed, for the express purpose of imprisoning and torturing Jedi.

Her hands were bound behind her back by a pair of magnetic binders slapped onto her wrists. It wasn't entirely uncomfortable, but there were better ways to be seated. The chair upon which she sat was placed in the centre of the cell, while a bunk was tucked crudely into the corner.

She tried to wrench her hands free of the binders, but to no avail. Seeing the obvious solution next, she closed her eyes—not that there was much to actually see—and used the Force to fiddle with the internal workings of the binders.

There was a thrumming surge and the binders switched off and clattered noisily to the cell floor. She brought her wrists around to her front and massaged them gently. They weren't sore from the binding, but it felt good to have them free, so it was an act of gratitude, she supposed.

She opened her eyes again, but the blackness still obscured her vision.

She reached up to remove whatever form of blindfold was present, but felt nothing. There was nothing covering her eyes, nothing at all. It was as if she was—

"Blind? Yes," a voice said from the darkness.

On instinct, she pushed herself up from the seat. Her senses hadn't told her that there was someone else in the cell with her, and she reached out again to confirm their presence but, again, came up with nothing.

Maybe she was imagining it. Yes, that had to be it. She was alone, she was blinded somehow, and she—

"You're not crazy," the voice said.

Wait. Wasn't that Zak's voice?

"What's wrong with my eyes? Why can't I see?" she asked, only mildly panicked. Then, figuring that the cell was probably being watched, she turned to the direction the voice had come from, put her hands on her hips, and pursed her lips. "Where the hell am I?" she demanded hotly.

"You," Zak's voice returned from behind her, "are my prisoner." Footsteps echoed off the walls, footsteps Tash hadn't noticed before. When Zak spoke again, it was from her left. "I would grant you more comfortable accommodations but I assure you this _is_ the best available on such short notice. Are you hurt? Were the bindings too tight?"

Tash detected actual concern from him. Maybe they were being watched but not heard. She could speak freely, possibly.

"I'm fine," she said evenly.

"Don't change your expression," Zak warned her. "They have cameras in this cell and the halls but they don't have audio surveillance."

That was all Tash needed by way of confirmation.

"What's going on, Zak?" she demanded, allowing the defiant expression to creep back in. "Why did you bring them to me? There had to be another way, Zak; something else that would have bought time enough to get what we're after."

"Not without compromising the _Glory_." His voice was solemn, and Tash reached out again and felt his presence _finally_ against the wall by the door. "The only other distraction I could think of was to tell her that Jaina had been bitten by that creature of hers," he continued, "and then she would have started a planet-wide search for her. In lieu of finding her, she would then have started a _system_-wide search, and I would have had no way of warning the _Glory_ to get away before discovery."

"What do you mean, 'no way'?" Tash demanded. "You have virtually unlimited access to this ship? How could you have 'no way' to get word to Luke?"

"_Virtually _unlimited is not wholly unlimited. I have no access to external communications," Zak replied. His voice indicated he was chagrined by this. "I would assume it's so I can't try and usurp one of the ships in orbit, but I can't be sure of that."

"In other words, she doesn't trust you." Tash crossed her arms over her chest and leaned a little to the side as she faced the direction she sensed his presence.

"Trust is not a trait the Sith have in abundance. Can you really expect that suspicion and distrust wouldn't be forever in the forefront of her mind? Because the Sith lack a sense of honour, trust is _dangerous_ to them. If they were to trust someone too far, it could eventually lead to their own death."

Tash relented, but kept her lips pursed. "So what, then?" she asked. "We sit around here trading stories under the pretence of trading barbs until it looks like you're getting bored with me and storm off to actually do what we came here to do?"

"Not quite," Zak said after a pause. Tash's hands dropped by her sides and she wished frantically that she could see the look on her brother's face.

"Zak," she started, "just why can't I see?"

"Alitha's using the Force to blind you. It requires constant concentration or the blindness will slip. I think it's to put the fear of her into you a little leading up to actual interrogative procedures." He paused and Tash swallowed heavily. "It's fortunate. I feel bad enough at what I must do without having you see it coming."

"What do you—" She cut herself short. The air around her was growing hot, thick. She sensed a lot of power thrumming within the room, within her brother's hands. "Zak!" She took a step back but it didn't matter. Without eyes to see, her senses were too slow to alert her to the threat in time to allow her to duck out of the way.

The electrical storm crashed into her chest, slamming her backwards against the wall of her cell as it fried every inch of skin it touched and caused every muscle to scream in agony.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

_**SICK BAY, OBSERVATION WARD; NEW REPUBLIC STAR DESTROYER:**_** CORELLIAN GLORY**

Jaina was growing more and more impatient the longer she remained in the _Corellian Glory_'s infirmary. She had to get out, had to return to the surface, had to see Zak while she was still herself.

For some reason she couldn't explain, she didn't quite believe her brother that her condition would improve. Something in the back of her mind told her to disbelieve anything anyone on this ship told her, though she had no idea how she could possibly doubt them—especially Jacen.

Jacen wouldn't have lied to her about this sort of thing. If he said that she was going to recover, then by the moons of Yavin, she was _going_ to get better.

She didn't remember when exactly she'd made the decision to leave the ship; maybe it had been when she woke, maybe when she'd been talking to Jacen, maybe only recently. Regardless, she already had her escape planned, though with great difficulty.

Tapping into the Force was difficult, but at least it was no longer becoming increasingly so. She'd already come to the inescapable conclusion that it was her mutations that were causing that. So reaching out to the rest of the ship to map it for her escape was difficult and time consuming. As it was, she was unsure if she'd attracted any unwanted attention from her uncle or her brother.

She pulled on her torn robes hastily, eyeing the apparent emptiness of the infirmary in case someone was trying to surprise her.

As she pulled on the garments, they tore and shredded further until, at last, she was able to get some of it to cover her shoulders, down over her breasts and sides. She tied the rags off at the waist and experimented with the flexibility before turning towards the door.

It opened before she reached it and she found herself face to face with Jacen once more.

His eyes shot open in surprise—surprise to see her out of bed, surprise to see her dressed so raggedly, and surprise at the intent he could probably sense in her thoughts.

"Ja—"

Jaina clubbed him across the face with the most human part of her hands and ducked her head out into the hall to see if anyone had seen her do it. The corridor was empty, and so she dragged Jacen's limp body back into the infirmary, lifted him, and deposited him carelessly on the bed she'd been laying on earlier.

She considered plucking the lightsaber that hung from his belt to defend herself with, but a second look at her forming claws and the immature spines along her wrists alleviated any doubts about her safety. She turned and raced out of the infirmary as quickly as she could, swinging around to the left and darting down the corridor on all fours, claws scraping against the deck.

The lift at the end of the corridor opened and a group of three ship officers stepped out and froze. Jaina skittered to a halt several feet before them and crouched in place, her teeth bared in warning and a dangerous growl escaping from her lips.

They backed slowly into the lift and the doors closed again, blocking them from Jaina's view.

Not more than ten seconds later, there was a loud keening in the halls. It was an alarm of sorts, and it drilled through Jaina's mutation-enhanced hearing painfully.

She doubled over and clamped her hands over her ears to try to block the sound out and wailed when she realised it wasn't working.

Drawing on the Force as much as she could, she used it to create a sound-lessening bubble around herself. With the alarms no longer drilling into her brain, Jaina was able to concentrate a little better.

Growling, she dashed forward toward the lift door and stopped in front of it on her feet.

She pushed the tips of her claws into the thin divide between the doors and forcefully wrenched them apart with as much strength as she could pour into the action. The sight of her enhanced biceps flexing under the strain wasn't lost on her, but she had more pressing issues now than to admire her new physical strength.

With the doors pried open, the lift tube lay open and waiting. She looked up to see a seemingly endless tube shooting decks upon decks above her.

Looking down, she saw the roof of the escaping lift capsule far below. It was still descending rapidly away from her, carrying its occupants to some imagined form of safety.

Jaina had no interest in tracking down the capsule's occupants. She didn't wish any harm upon them at all, she realised. But the roof of the capsule itself would serve as an adequate means of transport to where it was that she wanted to go.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Jaina dived into the lift tube head first and began to fall.


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

_**IMPERIUM VICTORY DESTROYER:**_** NIGHT SKY**_**; YAYA NTO SPACEPORT, NAVII LYA PRIME**_

Zak stepped over the body of the unconscious communications officer and pocketed the data disc in the same motion.

He was on the bridge of the _Night Sky_ while Alitha saw to the continued interrogation of his sister. The very thought of leaving her alone with Tash galled him, but Tash had assured him that she would be OK for a while, and insisted that Zak get back to work on the mission.

As he walked from the detention block to the bridge, Zak had come to the conclusion that he'd run out of time. Alitha wasn't inclined to keep Tash alive to lure the real him to her. She was inclined to kill her to provoke him. He couldn't allow that. He needed to get her out of there as soon as possible; and to do that, he was going to have to distract Alitha.

When he reached the bridge, he'd barely even hesitated. With a single sweeping movement of his hand, a massive shockwave of Force power radiated outward from him and threw every person it touched into whatever walls or consoles were nearby. Those not immediately knocked out had received follow up blasts from Zak's hands.

From there, he went about accessing the ship's databanks and communications records before deliberately setting off an alarm he was sure would bring Alitha racing straight to the bridge.

It wasn't at all lost on him that with how easy it had been to do, he could have done it much sooner.

A minute after setting off the alarm, he darted over to the internal security stations and set about releasing all the cell locks and lowering all the ray shields in the detention blocks.

Tash wasn't the only one he was honour-bound to save. Though she was the prisoner most important to him, he had to consider the greater good of releasing all of the civilians and Republic agents that had been imprisoned by Alitha. There was one in particular, a New Republic spy, who had served aboard this ship and gained the trust of one of the most senior officers on board.

After he was done, he locked down the ship's defensive capabilities and blasted every computer on the deck to slow down any repair attempt. He tucked the data disc with the retrieved information into the small pouch on his belt and clipped it securely shut.

It took Alitha only a few minutes to reach the bridge, and she did so quietly, though her thoughts were a storm of anger and frustration.

Zak sensed her look around the deck as she strode confidently down the central walk towards him. The grin on her lips belied the emotions that roiled out from her. Once she'd completely assessed the damage, she turned her gaze onto him. He could feel her eyes boring into his back questioningly as she probed his calm thoughts. She eyed the disused lightsaber in his hand.

Surprise and confusion crept into her mind and the grin slowly disappeared into a frown as she tried to comprehend what Zak had done and why he'd done it, for surely she still knew not who he really was. He erected thick walls to protect his thoughts, just in case.

She looked around again and stopped halfway down the walk, standing with her hands resting on her hips and the frown deepening a little further.

"I see that you've had yourself some fun in my absence." Her voice came plainly and loudly to him across the distance that remained between them. He didn't say anything just yet. "Gone an hour and look what you've done to the place."

"'Fun' isn't quite the word I would use to describe what I was feeling," Zak replied. He sensed her frown; saw the flash of his true self cross her thoughts for an instant before they were vanquished.

He turned around to face her, lightsaber still in hand, and watched the instinctual recoil as she was once again reminded of him. He grinned at the reaction. He felt the reassurances cross her mind over and over, like a silent mantra, reminding herself that who she faced now was a potential ally, not a sworn enemy to be acquired and manipulated.

"Care to explain yourself?" she offered, sweeping her hand wide to indicate the damage and disarray he'd caused prior to her arrival.

Zak thought about it for a minute, but he continued to stand there with his eyes locked onto hers. His hand tightened around the lightsaber it wielded, as if expecting trouble.

"One of them looked at me in a way I didn't at all appreciate. I'm sure you understand the need for discipline." It wasn't a question, merely a statement of fact, coupled with the slightest hint of a taunt.

"That's it?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Pretty much," Zak replied smugly.

He watched her frown deepen into a scowl. "So you decided to take it out on the rest of them as well?" Alitha asked him, sounding a little suspicious. He felt her attempt to probe his mind again and let her find only enough to confirm that he had indeed caused the damage, in case there was any doubt.

"Pretty much," Zak repeated, still smiling.

"You didn't kill them?"

"If I did that, who would fly the ship out of here after I'm done?" Zak pointed out. It was the truth, but only to the point that he wouldn't be accompanying Alitha. The ship itself, possibly in anticipation of difficulties from the locals of Navii Lya, was manned by the barest minimum of officers.

"After _you're_ done?" Alitha said, scowling. "Do you not mean after _I'm_ done. This is, after all, _my_ ship, and its officers are, after all, sworn to obey my orders first and foremost."

Something probed into Zak's mind again, but it wasn't Alitha. In fact it felt … familiar, somehow.

He reached out towards the unknown entity, but it was as if there was a sinkpit in the Force; something that he couldn't quite grasp fully. He felt Alitha's own senses go out to the strange unknown, but she didn't seem as alarmed as he by the strange presence. Her jaw tightened and she continued to frown.

Zak froze on the spot for a moment, and then raised Allina's lightsaber and flicked the red-white stream of plasma to life. His breathing became hard, as he exerted great effort into his protections. The cosmetic effect was on the verge of collapse, and would do should he fail to maintain his concentration.

Zak flung himself towards Alitha, lightsaber raised above his head to strike her down. He could see in her eyes that she knew he meant her serious harm. His feet found solid purchase on the deck plating right in front of her and he brought the plasma blade crashing down towards the middle of her head with as much brute strength as he could drag to bear.

Instantly, Alitha flicked her own lightsaber to life and tore it from her belt in the same movement. She brought it slashing upwards to batter his weapon away from her.

Zak was thrown off balance by her surprising middle-ring defence, and Alitha aimed a precise kick to his gut to follow through. It landed, sending him spinning away from his target in order to catch his breath and prepare for the next follow up.

When he recovered—and he did so quickly—he stood there with the lightsaber clasped tightly in both hands and his eyes narrowed in frustration he didn't bother to hide from Alitha.

His nostrils flared with every adrenaline-pumped breath he took. He pressed his lips together into a thin line as he took a second to analyse available stages of attack, vantage points, and grounding positions across the entirety of the deck. His observation was quick and he allowed her the false luxury of plucking the information from his mind.

There was a reason for the apparent madness. If he could make her think that he wouldn't use those forms of attack because they were so obvious, then he _could_ use them because of that obviousness and exploit her defences in ways she couldn't have been prepared for.

Zak darted forward again; swinging wide from the right and allowing the momentum of the movement pull him in to a tight whirlwind of motion, anchored on his left foot. He spun several times, continuing forward and continuing to slash at Alitha whenever she came into range.

She pushed her blade into the fray on his fifth spin, breaking the movement when he saw the danger it posed, but the sheer force behind his movement battered _her_ weapon away instead. Alitha stepped back and swung directly from above.

Zak dodged out of the way quickly and watched as the blade hissed through the air where he had been and cut through nothing. He ducked under the tail end of her lightsaber from the follow-through and rolled forward into her inner defensive ring.

Taking from his example, to a point in any case, Alitha allowed the swing of her lightsaber pull her into a backspin, led on by her lightsaber into a third such strike before adjusting herself so that she could focus on a closer attack.

Zak sensed that he _had_ indeed caught her off guard as she batted away several would-be fatal blows from him.

His mental defences came under violent assault from her then. Though he was confident that they would maintain their strength through her feeble lances, it was a distraction he could ill afford. He partitioned his thoughts to create an empty space, a space devoid of thought but full of instinct.

He allowed her probes to lead her there each and every attempt she withdrew to try again. But she swung her lightsaber at him again regardless. He stepped back to avoid her, giving her ground that she needed and that he couldn't let her have.

She geared up for another swing, and Zak brought his lightsaber around to slap it into place when something fast and blurred caught him hard in the chest and flung him backwards across the bridge. He slammed hard into the durasteel bracing crisscrossing the forward viewport and slumped to the deck in pain. He felt the cool metal of the lightsaber slide from his hand and roll across the deck away from him until it clattered to the lower deck and the blade sucked back into the hilt.

When he could drag his eyes up from the deck, he looked up at Alitha to see that she'd acquired an unlikely ally. The shock of what he saw caused his concentration to slip, and he felt the cosmetic effect slip away, revealing his true self.

Fortunately, for the moment at least, Alitha was similarly distracted by the new arrival.

It looked to Zak to be another one of her hybrids, but not quite at the same time. Tash had killed the one he had seen on the streets, and then dragged it away to the _Corellian Glory_ for analysis in order to try and save Jaina.

Long, dark reddish hair was matted and mucked into clumps around the hybrid's face and shoulders, scaly growths clearly visible to Zak growing from the strands of hair and pinning clumps together in odd places. The brown robes and the darker clothes the hybrid wore marked her as an informally dressed Jedi, and they were tattered, torn, barely covering her more than just the essential areas of the chest and hips.

The woman-thing's eyes, normally a warm brown, were instead pitch black, as if the pupils had expanded to colour the entire ball. Her usually soft skin had paled to a sickly green-grey and was now tougher than it had been previously—more akin to leather and scale now than actual human flesh. The tips of her slender fingers were pointed and merged with nail in scaly textures to form menacing claws that made Zak wary, and a row of short, sharp spines were growing from her forearms, starting at the wrists and angled back along the arms.

He sensed Alitha's worry, and at the same time, her glee. She hadn't expected this hybrid at all, but the knowledge of it gave her an edge she hadn't had moments before.

The creature opened its still mostly-humanoid lips to sneer at Zak, revealing the blackened forked tongue and the rows of razor sharp teeth along both of its jaws.

Smiling, Alitha whirled on her heels to face him again, and the energetic look on her face that was meant to dispirit him actually drove his anger, anger that Zak had been very careful to keep a tight leash on since his entanglement with Darth Pravus.

Slowly, Zak pushed himself back to his feet with a groan, and took pleasure from her disappointment at how steady he was. He looked back into her dark eyes, anger flashing dangerously within his own.

He physically had to restrain the urge to jump across at her now and wrap his fingers around her throat to squeeze the glee from her face. Without a lightsaber, such a move would be naught but suicide.

He chanced another look back at the hybrid, and that was when it hit him with enough force that his physically staggered under the weight of it.

"Jaina!" he gasped, breathless and horrified as his gaze lingered on the eyes that softened just slightly at his recognition.

Alitha made a hissing sound from beside Jaina as her own recognition set in, finally catching on to what had been under her nose all these weeks. "Zak!"

She launched herself across the deck at him, lightsaber outstretched before her to impale him.

Zak sidestepped it, but he wasn't quick enough and felt the blade brush barely against his shoulder as Alitha continued on past him. He raced away from her around the edge of the bridge, hand outstretched for the lightsaber that had been lost to him. It slapped coolly back into his hand and he flicked it to life in anticipation of a follow up.

He wheeled around left and back onto the central walk and turned to face the incoming ball of leather and flesh and metal and plasma that was Alitha.

He raised his lightsaber high to defend himself, prepared for the clash of hers on his.

But it didn't come.

Instead there was a loud _thwack_ of flesh on flesh, and a pained "oof" of surprise. When Zak adjusted his vision to his left, he saw that Jaina had flown over his shoulder from behind him—he'd completely forgotten that she was there—and crashed into Alitha head on before flinging them both across to the side.

Alitha was recovering, prying herself from the tangle of wires and busted console she'd been thrown against with enough force that her leg buckled beneath her and the metal had cut into her at a few points.

Jaina herself was perched at the edge of the bridge on one of the crisscrossing viewport braces. She watched with her head cocked to the side as Alitha finished extricating herself from the control boards and turned her gaze back and forth between her and Zak to determine the bigger threat.

"This isn't _possible_!" she roared. "I _order_ you to restrain him!" she directed at Jaina, pointing to Zak with her free hand, which bore a deep cut on the back of it. "NOW!"

Jaina shook her head and bared her teeth at the Sith by way of a smile—for her lips could no longer form a human one with all of those teeth blocking the way.

"It doesn't matter what you do to her," Zak said, taking a step toward the edge of the walk, closer to Alitha, who looked up at him with the coldest of furies, "or what you do to me; because our feelings for each other would override it all."

"Your …" Zak contained his smile as Alitha's fury grew. She flung herself towards him again, and in the same instant, Jaina sprung from the brace and ploughed into the woman's side with all the momentum she had.

Alitha was flung again to the side, but this time she missed the danger of the broken consoles and skidded across the deck in a heap.

Zak waited, but Alitha didn't move.

She was breathing, so she was definitely still alive. It seemed that Jaina had hit her hard enough to render her unconscious.

Part of him was tempted to jump down after her and drive the lightsaber in his hand straight through her heart, to end her and her attempts to control him before she did any further harm. But to do so while she wasn't able to defend herself was the height of cowardice, and it was one of the most dishonourable things he could think of ever doing.

He couldn't bring himself to bring that kind of shame upon Skywalker, who personally had taken an interest in Zak's training.

A hard, scaly arm looped around his waist and he turned his head to his right to see Jaina standing beside him, looking back at him with as much warmth as she could make him see. He reached out for the silent link they shared, but it was weak, almost unreachable, and it worried him.

"My connection to the Force is somewhat … strained, as I am," she explained with a frown. "At least we still _have_ the link. I have nothing else for the moment."

"For the moment?" Zak asked.

Jaina nodded and then said; "Sorry to burst your bubble, Zak, but I don't think it was our mutual feelings that prevented me from falling under her sway. Allina gathered together some of the knowledge she'd gleaned from her time amongst the Imperium and devised a couple of serums to undo the mutations wracking my body."

"So I can't expect to have lizard-girl for a partner for long?" Zak said cheekily.

"No," she prodded him in the side.

"Blaster bolts. And the look was just starting to grow on me," he joked with a smile. She prodded him again. "Ow! Those are sharp, you know!"

She changed the topic. "Did you get it?" she asked.

Zak yanked the data disc from the pouch at his belt and showed it to her. "All the information we need to save Allina … plus a little extra. We'll be able to show the Senate proof that the Imperium was behind the deaths of those Senators."

"Then we need to hurry," Jaina said, looping her arm through his and tugging him towards the rear of the bridge to the lift tube.

"Why? What's happened?"

"Allina is what happened. She pushed herself beyond her physical capabilities writing down as much information as she could for my cure that it sped up her deterioration. They've got her in stasis until we get back with this, but we don't have long."

Zak frowned and deactivated Allina's lightsaber before clipping it back to his belt. "You know … you could have opened with that instead of wasting time."


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

Moments after Alitha had been called away from torturing Tash by the ship's internal alarms, the magnetic binders on Tash's wrists switched off and clattered to the floor. Seconds after that, the locks on the cell door clanged loudly and the ray shields flickered off entirely.

So it went without saying that Tash didn't need to be told that Zak was giving her a way free. She wrenched the door open hard and flashed through the doorway without hesitating.

What she didn't count on was being intercepted by a stormtrooper only seconds after she was set free.

Immediately outside the door was dampened from the Force. She assumed that it was Ysalamiri at work and frowned as the stormtrooper rushed her. On instinct, she sidestepped and thrust her arm out to the side, catching the trooper in the throat and sending them flipping backwards to the deck.

With a satisfied smile, she reached down and pulled the blaster rifle from the trooper's back, snapping the sling. She turned it around in her hands and slammed it hard into the back of the trooper's helmet as they were struggling to get back to their feet.

Bending low, she checked the trooper's pulse, then, satisfied that she hadn't killed them, stood back up and checked the corridor around her.

Her cell, it seemed, hadn't been the only one opened. Prisoners from many cells were taking advantage of the opportunity and running out into the hall to escape. Guards that came to subdue the mass exodus were trampled in the rush, their weapons taken from them.

One prisoner approached her, an appropriated blaster pistol in one hand and a comm. device in the other. Tash was cautious, unknowing of what it was the prisoner wanted.

"Jedi Arranda?" the prisoner asked as she approached.

Tash nodded. "Who are you?"

The woman stopped in front of Tash and saluted stiffly with the hand holding the blaster. "Major Lea Sandren: New Republic Intelligence Corps."

Tash waved absently for her to drop the salute and she did. "Mission?" she asked, even though she knew it was a pretty silly thing to do since she doubted she'd get an answer.

Perhaps if she was a Jedi Master, she might have been told, but she wasn't even an apprentice.

Major Sandren seemed to think along the same lines, for she smiled at the question and shook her head. "Sorry, that's classified," she said apologetically. "I spoke with your brother before your capture. He asked that I escort you from the ship."

"My lightsaber," Tash said with a frown. She didn't want to leave without it.

"It's most likely in the Empress' quarters. We can't risk going for it. For all we know, that's exactly where she is and without it, you would be cut down in seconds. We both would."

"I'm not leaving it behind." Tash stood there stubbornly, turning to look over her shoulder every now and then for approaching threats.

Sandren seemed to recognise that she wasn't going to get anywhere by arguing. That she didn't threaten to just leave her behind spoke legions about the kind of person she was.

"I'll lead the way," she said. Tash nodded and followed her out of the cell block.

* * *

It took Tash and Major Sandren only minutes to reach the designated room and bust the door lock. Major Sandren led the way cautiously into Alitha's room, sweeping the blaster pistol in a wide arc as she scanned the room for intruders.

Tash followed behind her just as carefully and started her own search using the Force—now that it was available to her again.

When she found her lightsaber—hidden on the top shelf inside Alitha's wardrobe—she inspected it quickly for any signs of mistreatment before her senses alerted her to danger.

"Stop! Right! There!" a voice said behind them. Tash flicked her lightsaber to life in the same instant that she turned around to see a woman standing in the doorway—a woman that was _not_ Alitha.

The woman was young, maybe younger than normal for the rank Tash could see pinned to the Imperial uniform she wore. Her hair was shoulder length, and coloured in streaks of bright red and white. Her eyes were the colour of topaz, her form slim and able with strong arms, slender legs. Her lips weren't quite full, and presently pressed into a frown of disapproval and hatred.

Lea Sandren stood just ahead of Tash, blaster aimed at the intruder. Though, the look on her face lacked the conviction Tash expected to see before someone fired their weapon on the enemy.

Tash failed to understand this in someone from the NRI, and raised her lightsaber defensively as the Imperial eyed both of them.

"Drop your weapons and surrender!" the woman snarled.

"Um ... Jedi," Tash said mockingly, gesturing to the lightsaber in her hands with a nod. "You really think a blaster is going to do much?"

"Do _not_ make me repeat myself," the woman snapped.

"Gail—"

"Shut your mouth, you filthy _traitor_!" The Imperial fired a warning shot that passed a hair's width from Major Sandren's head. Tash took a step forward in warning. "STAY WHERE YOU ARE, JEDI SCUM!"

Tash frowned. _Zak, where are you?_

_Trying to get to you. Have you left the ship yet?_ Her brother's reassuring voice came back to her mind. She made no outward indication that she was conversing with him, but was unsure without a mirror if she was successful.

_Not yet. We've been slightly detained. I met up with your Intelligence friend though. I'll meet you at the_ Hunter_ in a bit. Just have to get past this one annoying little pest first. Try not to leave without us, OK?_

_ Will do. Jaina came back. Try not to scream when you see her; she's rather sensitive about her looks at the present moment._

Tash fought the urge to chuckle. She couldn't sense Jaina, but neither could she sense deception in her brother's statement that she was there. She believed him and returned her attention to the problem at hand.

"So, uh …" she started. "We seem to have gotten lost. Could you point us in the direction of the hangar bay so we can get back to the spaceport?"

The woman named Gail fired a shot at her too and Tash brought her lightsaber around to deflect it. Her aim was true and the laser bolt bounced off her blade straight back at the Imperial officer's chest.

Sandren made to move forward with a strangled cry which surprised Tash, but the Imperial jumped out of the way before spinning into the room and firing several more shots at both of them.

Sandren ducked behind the ornate bed frame against the wall for cover, but did not return fire. Tash remained standing, and deflected incoming fire as best she could in the confines of the room.

She sensed fear from the Intelligence operative; fear not for her own life, nor for Tash's. She feared for the life of the Imperial. Tash didn't want to be rude but she had to find out the cause.

Partitioning her concentration as best she could—from what her brother had begun to teach her—she dove into Sandren's mind and weaved her way to the facts.

Withholding the gasp of shock at what she found, she surged forward towards the Imperial officer and sliced cleanly through the forward half of the blaster pistol, rendering it useless. The woman tossed the remnants to the deck and swung a fist around on a course for Tash's jaw.

She dodged the fist and stabbed forward with the lightsaber. She felt the resistance, detected the faint smell of burning flesh, and heard the gasp of shock from the Imperial and the cry of disbelief from the Intelligence operative.

A hand clasped down on her shoulder and pulled her away. The lightsaber slipped out of the Imperial's abdomen and Tash shut it off as she looked down at Sandren.

The Intelligence operative, uncharacteristically, was fussing over the wound Tash had just inflicted. She tore a strip of material from the bottom of her shirt, balled it up, and stuffed it into the burnt hole to stem any unexpected bleeding.

Then she turned and glared at Tash. "You didn't have to kill her! We could have taken her prisoner!"

"I didn't kill her," Tash replied, taken aback by the concern Sandren was showing for someone who should have been her enemy.

She knew about the bond that had formed between them during Sandren's subterfuge. It seemed, however, that the feelings Lea felt for the Imperial were genuine, and not just a part of the cover story she needed to pass as an Imperial.

"The wound is non-fatal, Major. We have to get out of here. I got what I came for. We can't waste time trying to carry her to the ship."

Tash stepped around them and out the door into the hall. She looked back over her shoulder to see Sandren plant a brief kiss on the Imperial's forehead. The other woman narrowed her eyes and snarled.

"I will _kill_ you!" she said before losing consciousness.

* * *

Tash swung her lightsaber back and forth continuously as they raced across the tarmac to the docking port where the _Silent Hunter_ was sheltered.

The word had gone out about the prison break aboard the destroyer and it looked like a platoon of stormtroopers had set up a rudimentary defensive line not too far from the Star Destroyer's forward landing gear. For the most part, they were hidden behind shipping and spare part crates, but there were a few that were out in the open and they were dealt with by the quick thinking and sharp shooting of Major Sandren.

Tash then leapt ahead of the major to take defensive point, batting away the incoming blaster fire. When she reached the stormtroopers' line, she thrust her hand out to the left and sent a wave of Force energy crashing into the crates there. Stormtroopers and crates alike flew, and a few of the airborne troopers fired aimlessly, trying to hit something.

She swung her lightsaber out to the right and deflected a blaster bolt back into the chest plate of the stormtrooper that fired it. The energy bolt burned through the armour and the trooper dropped dead to the tarmac.

Sandren rushed past her, hit the ground and rolled around a stack of crates. She came up to her knees firing blindly at the troopers hidden behind it, felling two of them and hitting the third in the shoulder. Tash followed through with a Force push and the back of his helmet cracked against the face plate of the trooper behind him before they both fell and didn't move.

Tash looked around for the berth the _Hunter_ was docked in, swinging her lightsaber to defend herself from the continued fire of the still-standing stormtroopers. She found it, not too far away.

"Major, get to the ship!" Tash called out, pointing in the direction of the _Silent Hunter_. "I'll cover you."

She heard a terrible, high pitched scream then and something grey-green and brown blurred into view, slamming into a pair of stormtroopers before it came to a standing halt in front of her.

She raised her lightsaber at the new hybrid on instinct, readying herself to kill it like she'd killed the last. It was only after that pause to examine the new creature that she realised what Zak had meant about Jaina's sensitivity.

"Jaina?" she gasped.

Jaina stood before her, changed, holding both the stormtroopers she'd hit by the throat in front of her. She tossed them both aside and smiled at Tash, revealing disturbing rows of razor sharp teeth.

"TASH, DON'T!" Zak called from afar. Tash turned to see him racing over to them, lightsaber drawn. When he was upon them, he flipped through the air over Jaina and crates and came down hard on a stormtrooper, driving them hard to the tarmac before hitting them in the face plate with the butt of the lightsaber hilt.

"Zak!" Tash said with a smile. "It's good to see you made it out.

"Almost didn't," Zak said grimly, pushing himself to his feet and shutting off the lightsaber. He clipped it to his belt and turned a full circle to assess the stormtrooper situation. It was then that Tash noticed there were none of them left standing. She deactivated her own lightsaber. "If Jaina hadn't shown up when she did …"

"Let's not consider that," Jaina hissed awkwardly through lips and tongue that were not hers. She frowned at the distorted speech. "We should get out of here before Alitha wakes up. Tash—where are the other prisoners?"

"I saw some of them boarding the shuttle in the Star Destroyer's hangar. I assume they were all doing something similar."

"Major Sandren?" Zak asked her.

"Aboard the _Silent Hunter_ by now, I assume." Tash frowned and belted her weapon. "Did you know—?"

"That she was in an intimate relationship with one of the senior officer's of the Destroyer? Yes I did. Quite unexpected that the feelings she had were genuine. But"—he sighed wistfully—"to each his or her own. Now let's get out of here."


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

Zak felt it when the _Corellian Glory_ finally dropped out of hyperspace to almost a dead stop.

It had been a solid three weeks since the events on Navii Lya Prime and Zak's showdown with his newest arch nemesis, Alitha. And yet, he sensed it was far from the last time he'd have dealings with her.

But, to be perfectly honest with himself, he was just glad that he'd made it out this time in one piece. Next time, he mightn't have such luck.

Allina was doing much better. Zak had been quick enough in returning to the ship with the information he'd gathered that Geesev and his counterpart, with assistance from Matilda Perisca, had devised a chemical "cure". They were quite confident that Allina would be permanently free from the genetic degenerations Alitha had built into her if she took the treatment daily for at least several months.

Zak was optimistic, Allina only mildly so.

Jaina's reversal was starting to please her too. Much to the disappointment of the pessimist in her who'd been chagrined at the thought of remaining the hybrid she'd almost turned into.

Most of the scaly growths had reverted back to skin, and her face had returned to normal. The spikes along her spinal column had sunk back into the bone beneath the flesh, but the ones along her arms were taking just a little longer.

So when the ship dropped out of hyperspace and Jaina entered the infirmary, Zak smiled at her before returning his attention to Allina, who was by now completely dressed and ready to go.

"Oh," she said when she spotted Jaina.

Jaina put her hands up in defence and smiled. "I'm not here to argue with you," she said. "This is the first time that I've had a chance to see you since our recoveries began and I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for saving my life."

Allina stood there, not knowing what to say, as Zak looked back and forth between the two of them with an amused smile.

"Technically I didn't save your life. You would still have lived as one of the hybrids."

"Until someone not knowing who I was struck me down," Jaina pointed out. "Look, I owe you this apology. For so long I've been convinced that your capitulation was just another plan of Alitha's to get one of her spies amongst us so that she'd be able to find us. And when she arrived at Navii Lya Prime shortly before we were about to depart, I thought that my suspicions had been pretty much justified then and there.

"But you risked your life for me. With the condition you were in, if you really were just an Imperium plant, and still loyal to Alitha, you could have just let me change into one of those things. No one would have known that you had the information to reverse what was being done to me. You would have gotten away with it. But you didn't do that. You hastened your own degeneration just so you could help me.

"Considering the way I'd been treating you, I wouldn't even have blamed you if you'd just let the mutations continue. You've proven yourself a better person than even I am. And I'm sorry." Jaina smiled weakly, unsure how Allina would respond.

"You don't have to—"

"Just … accept the apology? OK?" Jaina said seriously, making Zak smile.

Allina nodded and turned to Zak. "Where are we going?" she asked him.

"Well, it's interesting that you ask that question, really," Zak replied, "because now that we've dropped out of hyperspace there's really only one place we could possibly be."

"Where?"

"Our new home," Jaina replied in Zak's place. "Uncle Luke thought that you might want to come up to the bridge with us and get your first look at the planet as we approach."

Allina nodded enthusiastically and followed them both out of the infirmary.

* * *

They stepped onto the bridge minutes later and were greeted by Luke and Captain Tenaha warmly. However, there was no sign of Jacen or Tash.

"The others are on the observation deck," Luke said, reading Zak's thoughts.

Zak nodded and looked past him and the captain to the forward viewing port. They all followed his gaze and the captain and the older Jedi led the way to the view port.

Their new home was larger than Zak had expected it to be, but it was just as dark. There was no star, no other planets—this one was a rogue, an anomaly. Even without a solar placement, it had an atmosphere, and it generated its own temperature somehow. It was a mystery Zak was looking forward to investigating.

Jaina clasped his hand and he squeezed it gently with a smile.

"It may look barren and deserted from this side," Luke started, "but I'm assured that we have facilities up and running on the far side of the planet."

"If they're not yet ready, Luke, you and your students are free to remain on board until they are," Tenaha said as his eyes shifted across the space surrounding the planet.

"You don't have other assigned duties?" Jaina asked him.

"My ship, my rules," the captain said with a cheeky smile. "If Ackbar wants to pull me away and assign the _Glory_ another assignment, he'll have to push in a replacement. I'm going to be recommending to the military advisement council that the Academy be defended at all times from now on."

"We _do_ have other Praxeum facilities throughout the Republic," Luke said, stroking his chin in thought, "but they're so close to the Galactic Core that it would be suicidal, and costly, for the Imperium to attack any of them. Yavin was one of the outskirt ones."

"This one will be too," Zak pointed out. A sensor drone flitted by out of sight. Probably automated, Zak guessed.

"That's true. But it's in unmapped territories and it has no solar designation so it won't be easy to find."

Zak thought about this as Luke put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Each setback, each bad thing that happens to us, is a learning experience, Zak," Luke continued. "We've learned a valuable lesson in losing Yavin: that we can't assume that because it is far from Imperium space that it's automatically out of reach."

"Today's lesson?"

Luke nodded. And together, the five of them watched the planet as the ship and its escorts drew closer.


End file.
